Scripts written in R can be called from ArcGIS via custom script tools in much the same way that Python can be used. There are three components of R scripts tools, including the R script, a custom toolbox, and parameters for the script. The arcgisbinding package provides the mechanism for communication between R and ArcGIS.
The arcgisbinding package allows you to access ArcGIS format data from an R script. Using this package, you can access geodatabases and shapefiles for read and write purposes. You can also select subsets of GIS datasets using a select() function that acts much the same as cursor objects in Python. Basically, they are in-memory copies of datasets. You can also convert ArcGIS data to sp objects, perform analysis, and write data back to ArcGIS format datasets. Other capabilities include the ability to convert between WKT and proj.4 and interact with geometries and attributes.