I've been working on some code to allow Python to "understand" the structure of LEGO bricks. In LDRAW, the actual LDR file contains each brick used in a given LEGO model (the .ldr file contains information about the colour, position, and orientation of a given brick). By drilling down into the individual structure of a given brick (by analysing the sub part dat files that create each brick) I could get python to understand the dimensions of the brick and the number of studs that a brick has. Using this information I could then begin to place bricks and get the code to place subsequent bricks with an understanding of the bricks that might already exist on the model. Remember that the ldr file of the model itself doesn't contain information about the dimensions of the brick or the stud count of the bricks, so my python code has to work this out for itself. When the code places a subsequent brick it has to make sure that it doesn't intersect with any existing bricks already in the model. Currently I'm simply using 2x2 standard bricks - these are by far the easiest to initially manipulate in code as they are symmetrical, but ultimately I'd like my code to manipulate a range of bricks perhaps around 10 different bricks - this may seem small but the possible model combinations using 10 bricks would run into the billions! Currently the code displaces any new bricks in height (Z) when it encounters an existing brick (as this is easier than displacing left right in X and Y!)
Tracking the existing bricks (and their dimensions) during the build remains challenging and whilst it generally works there are still instances where the code misplaces a LEGO brick causing an intersection. These intersections - and occasional "floaters" (where a brick seems to hang unsupported) still require additional debugging. I also deliberately embed a red stud in the base plate for orientation purposes (if you were wondering what that was!)
There is no "intelligence" here so this is definitely not an AI or any type of machine learning, but if I could get some code to understand the "structure" of LEGO bricks it might be possible to to use this code as the basis for an AI experiment, where it might be possible to build and analyse 1000's of lego models very quickly and select those that might be more "appealing" than others - any kind of AI or ML is a considerable way off for me currently but if anyone in interested in exploring the idea of a model building LEGO AI please get in touch info@cultofthebrick.co.uk
