Bridging Evolutionary Algorithms and Reinforcement Learning: A Comprehensive Survey on Hybrid Algorithms

Evolutionary reinforcement learning (ERL), which integrates the evolutionary algorithms (EAs) and reinforcement learning (RL) for optimization, has demonstrated remarkable performance advancements. By fusing both the approaches, ERL has emerged as a promising research direction. This survey offers a comprehensive overview of the diverse research branches in ERL. Specifically, we systematically summarize the recent advancements in related algorithms and identify three primary research directions: 1) EA-assisted optimization of RL; 2) RL-assisted optimization of EA; and 3) synergistic optimization of EA and RL. Following that, we conduct an in-depth analysis of each research direction, organizing multiple research branches. We elucidate the problems that each branch aims to tackle and how the integration of EAs and RL addresses these challenges. In conclusion, we discuss potential challenges and prospective future research directions across various research directions. To facilitate researchers in delving into ERL, we organize the algorithms and codes involved on https://github.com/yeshenpy/Awesome-Evolutionary-Reinforcement-Learning.