Utilizing Minecraft and Mods virtual representations of the real world can be built to train autonomous agents to navigate and perform tasks within this virtual environment. The virtual models can be utilized by physical agents such as Boston Dynamics bots to implement the tasks and instructions learned using the virtual models. Ultimately this makes it reasonable to imagine a scenario that we could build our house and have it constructed in a short duration by autonomous artificial agents.
Minecraft is so hard to describe. Is it a game , or is it an educational tool? At first I didn't get it. I watched my children play this game endlessly and always seeking ways to improve their lives. It was eventually acquired by Microsoft and the basic experience has remained largely the same. Instead of putting it aside, Microsoft has expanded across more platforms and loaded it up with many new features, such as an education edition and cross-platform play. Redstone is used to construct Minecraft houses, cities and even basic circuit models. Mods, which are modifications to the default project can be constructed by anyone.
Dynamic Mapping
It's great to create virtual worlds, but what about the real thing? Can we model the real-world? A few months ago, I was able to discover a project from the New York Public Library that generated topographically accurate Minecraft maps from historical maps and Python scripts. While the accuracy of old maps isn't certain however, we can only believe that mapping practices have improved significantly since then and can provide more information and data. This project shows that it is possible to simulate the real world in an imaginary environment with the proper data.
Project Malmo
In addition to the obvious advantages of a model that is accurate, it also provides an opportunity for autonomous agents to navigate the environment. Project Malmo is an excellent tool to aid in this endeavor. Irc101 The tool was released to the public in 2015 by Microsoft Research, Project Malmo is a platform for artificial intelligence research and experimentation that is built on top of Minecraft. The project is cross-platform and agents can be developed using Python, Lua, C#, C++ or Java.
Although Project Malmo's benefits aren't obvious, they are extremely valuable. The cost is not just in terms of cost but also time to build physical autonomous bots is expensive. If they break or fail in field tests it could be expensive. It might be more effective to simulate mobility and navigation in real-world environments.
Manual Labor
Once we've been trained then it's time to find or create the physical agents that will perform the work and follow the instructions given in the virtual worlds. Recent demonstrations have shown the existence of agents that could be able of handling such tasks. Boston Dynamics is one of these agents. Boston Dynamics has been creating amazing anthropomorphic and zoomorphic robots for many years. These robots can construct homes if they've been taught in real-world environments.
The thought of a bot building a home is not too abstract. In March of 2017, several reports claimed that a house in Russia was constructed in less than 24 hours using 3-D printing technologies. While the home was constructed with an already-defined layout, and the robotic arm that constructed it was restricted in its mobility, such capabilities could be enhanced with the aid of a trained model being executed by sophisticated physical autonomous robots like the ones developed by Boston Dynamics.