The Metas Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) team has proposed a new version of Habitat. Version 3.0 of the virtual training room for AI robots is now even more advanced.

Researchers from the Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research team at Meta have launched Habitat 3.0. This is a virtual simulation environment in which AI robots can be trained to interact with the physical world.

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Habitat was first presented in 2019 and is now in its third version with some stations. Since training AI actors via robots or other hardware reaches its limits, the FAIR team has developed this virtual test zone. Here researchers can simulate the interaction between humans and AI robots.

To ensure that the development of skills progresses as quickly as possible, the FAIR team is developing new algorithms and models in simulators. These are then transferred to physical robots.

All AI actors in Habitat 3.0 are trained to work with human partners on everyday tasks such as cleaning or cooking. There are human avatars and the interface is via keyboard, mouse or AR headset.

There are two important tasks in the system:

• Social reorganization: Collaboration in which an avatar and a virtual robot must coordinate to complete simple household tasks
• Social navigation: The robot follows the human avatar at a safe distance

The evaluation of all of this is done via a Habitat 3.0 framework and takes place with real human partners.

Additional tools

In addition to the various general upgrades, this new version also offers two important innovations:

• Synthetic habitat scene dataset (HSSD-200): a 3D dataset with more than 18,000 objects in 466 categories and in 211 different scenes. This allows researchers to compare physical environments with virtual data.
• HomeRobots: a hardware and software platform for robot assistants. It enables robots to perform open-ended vocabulary tasks in simulated and physical environments. The platform also has a library of navigation and manipulation functions.

Like many other large and small technology companies, Meta is increasingly relying on AI. For example, there are the various AI bots that the company will soon distribute across its various communication apps. Meta is also working on an AI model that will develop into a universal translator.