Trajectory-Based Recommender Systems as Control Systems

Recommender Systems (RS) are a key research domain and play an increasing role in our content-overwhelmed lives. In this paper, we explore Trajectory-Based Recommender Systems (TBRS), a subfield for which many related studies exist, yet still lacking a common framework. We argue that Control Theory provides an appropriate foundation for formalizing and solving TBRS problems. TBRS, sometimes named Long Term goal Recommender Systems, share core principles with classical RS, but at their core lies the concept of a trajectory, a defining element that makes these systems a singular category. To date, most RSs that include a notion of goal or long-term objective, when this goal is explicit, have not been recognized as having specific characteristics that make them worth regrouping under a dedicated field of research. We review related work, observe how they differ from already conceptualized RSs, and sketch the foundations of a possible theoretical framework based on control theory. Finally, we show how Educational Recommender Systems (ERS), intrinsically long-term and goal-driven, can be modeled within the proposed TBRS framework.