What do we need for automated drones

[dga8705]

It's been mentioned several times on here of having automated drones that would build a ship for you. 3D printers just create a ton of lag and are a ton of work, plus they have size limits for practicality. I think the next best option is having a welding drone that would automatically pick up the necessary materials, go find an unwelded block, and weld it.

Now, I'm not asking that Keen put a prebuilt thing in, that's not the point of this game. What I would like to see is a way of building this. I have built drones that will automatically weld a flat surface(they turn off inertial dampeners, fire thrusters in a direction, and when they sense another wall, turn dampeners back on so they can change direction). That said, I would prefer something that can build a more complicated ship.

So what would we actually need to make that happen? Here's my list although I'm sure I'm missing a few things.

1. Able to detect unwelded/damaged blocks vs. welded blocks with sensor
2. Able to set actions based on contents of cargo containers(not sure if this is possible with the programming block or not).
3. Preferably a way to have the projector tell the assemblers exactly what they will need to build for whatever is being projected. Again, not sure if this is already possible with scripts or not.

What else?

[Twelve]

i would be in support of a block that can place down other blocks. i think thats what your going for right?

[VanGoghComplex]

In short, we need an array of "input" blocks to be added so that the drone can better sense its surroundings. We've got cameras, ore detectors, and sensors. In addition to making those blocks more powerful (and implementing a way for the drone to act based on input from them) we also need radar/lidar. Finally, the Autopilot system is a good start for autonomous movement, but it needs to be able to go to coordinates that aren't static points in space we've predefined.

[dga8705]

Twelve, I don't think it would need to be able to put down other blocks. We have the projector block, and especially now that it has a "Show only Buildable" button, it's reasonable to use that even for huge ships without tons of lag.

VanGogh, yea basically we need to have the option to base the actions of the ship on inputs, and more inputs to do that. I think sensors will be able to keep it from crashing as long as they aren't flying super fast. The autopilot option is a very good start, but it would be a VERY time consuming system to set up(basically have way points all over the building area and just have it go back and forth) plus it would be nice if it could look at its own cargo, realize that it's out of plates, and decide to go back to the base and dock to refill.

Any programmers out there that know if you can have a script cause an action based on the contents of it's cargo containers? Like if steel plates<100, it would activate a remote control block to autopilot back to a docking point. I know there are scripts that will autoload your ship with whatever materials, but then we also have to get the ship back to the point it stopped at or near to it(it could restart the row if necessary based on autopilot points).

[koekiemonster]

I like the idea of better automated drones. And I have idea of beter defending your station/ship.
Now autopilot can only use waypoint to fly to but what if it can use Antenna's to circle around.
I know that you have turrets but they are relatively easy target's because they have aim lasers that makes them easy to see. And they stand still so 1 or 2 good aim'd rocket's shoots them down. But a guardian drone can aim harder but is harder to hit to and it can hit the other side of the ship to.

And so you could make that the remote controle can register a drone on type on base what tools they carry so you can have a guardian drone if hi has 1 weapon at least. A welding/grinding drone if it has 1 welder/grinder. And it could be 1 mining drone if it has 1 drill at least.

A mining drone could be set to mine 1 specific ore. Like you are nearly out of uranium and than you go sitting on a controle seat and can see standing #Mining drone 1# and if you click that you can see the drones parts(using the antenna's) like thrusters, reactors, drill and of course remote controle and set in the remote controle on drill onlly uranium with a whitelist. and so he use his ore detector to detect that ore on astroyds(if it is not on that asteroid he go's back to the ship and than the ship can use special lazer atennes/sensors to detect new asteroids and fly to them) mine them and bring them back to the ship.

[theaaronone]

I would like to be able to build a multitude of drones for various purposes - alas even if they could be built/constructed I do not know the FIRST thing about programming, I've tried to learn basics with tutorials and youtube videos etc, but that whole part of the game is unfortunately lost to me, it's just way over my head.

That said, if there were a way to create basic/preprogrammed drones that laymen such as myself could use, but still allow you guys that have the ability to program to add the appropriate block and/or tweak/adjust/redo existing code to make it do more specific specialized functions, I would be up for that. There could be mulitple base templates like repair, miner, builder, transport, defender, or capture drones for example.

A few of these, in conjunction with a 'planning' block of some sort, i.e. something that lets you place 'phantom blocks' in a player defined area that builder-drones could then construct with the assist of transport drones bringing them materials - it would allow some of the useful creative mode functions like symmetry to bleed into the survival, make mid-late game building a bit more efficient, and allow some pretty grand scale builds that might be otherwise be too time consuming for a lone engineer.

Or not. I'm just blabbing, really.

[dga8705]

Theaaronone, you can download scripts off the workshop and put them into programming blocks. Build a programming block, go to the control panel, click edit, click browse workshop, and it should come up with the list that you are subscribed to, and an option to browse the workshop for more.

As for placing phantom blocks, that's what the projector is for. You can build something in creative, take a blueprint, switch to a different survival world, load the blueprint into a projector, and build it in survival.

Ok, back to the original topic, it sounds like the main thing we need is an option for sensors to detect more specific things(i.e. unbuilt/damaged blocks) and then scripts being able to change actions based on that data.

Any programmers want to answer the question about whether programming blocks can cause actions based on things like status of a cargo container or what material ore detectors are seeing? I'm wondering if you can have it set gps points on the material detections and then have it go off of that?