Minecraft AI Assignments (Part 1)

Summary	A package of interesting projects in Minecraft-like domains with applications to Minecraft itself. These assignments cover a variety of AI topics from path and task planning to constraint satisfaction.
Topics	Path planning, classical planning, iterative widening, constraint satisfaction, linear programming, integer programming.
Audience	Upper division undergraduate students in a general AI course; could be scaled down to early stage undergraduates.
Difficulty	Moderate to high, depending how much sample code is provided and how much scaffolding is given.
Strengths	Plenty of analytic and implementation work, interesting domain for students.
Weaknesses	Each topic is covered in only as much depth as a week or two will allow. If the analytic work is not supported by in-class exercises, students may feel lost unless they are very self-motivated.
Dependencies	Python examples are provided, although Malmo should work with Java or C# as well. A Conda-based installation process is given which may or may not work out of the box on Windows (only the Malmo portion could pose difficulty). Students should be familiar with graphs from algorithms or discrete math coursework. Python knowledge a plus but not strictly required (if students are not familiar with Python, they will need some extra help).
Variants	This is just a sample of possible assignments in the Minecraft domain. These can be given with more or less scaffolding and analytic content, in almost any order. In the linear and integer programming portions, students could be responsible for implementing their own solvers. Students could also run their agents or plans in the real Minecraft domain via Malmo as a bonus.

Setting up the environment is detailed in Setup.

Each assignment has an automatic grading test suite (which can be combined with command line tools to create csv files) as well as narrative writeups with plenty of scaffolding.

These projects are split into four major assignments:

1. Path and task planning, in two parts:
   • Path Planning Four Ways
   • Crafting with Iterative Widening
   • Associated files:
     • Pathfinding/terrain.txt
     • Pathfinding/test_path_planning.py
     • CraftingPlanning/crafting.json
2. Linear programming with applications to metric task planning, also in two parts:
   • Building a Castle with Linear Programming
   • Integer Programming for Production Planning
   • Associated files:
     • SchedulingLinProg/crafting.json

It is important to back up the homeworks with lecture material. One approach might be to introduce topics and algorithms in advance of assigning the homework, then revisit those topics and some of the reflection questions in class partway through the assignment. Another tack could be to give the reflection parts as in-class exercises. A sample syllabus is also provided. It covers many additional topics which will be incorporated into the Minecraft Assignments in the future.