In theory, could I use this (or something like it) to develop algorithms for controlling autonomous vehicles (aerial, ground, and/or aquatic), then if I ever get my experimentation to the point that I’m interested in doing so, building the vehicle itself and deploying it with a reasonable degree of confidence that it would actually work?
getting things like this to transfer well is not necessarily easy, it’s a major active area of research.
even if you somehow had a perfect physics model, there are problems like the fact that motors and joints behave differently as they wear down, etc.
it might be easier for wheeled vehicles — usually the examples of failure are complicated, error-prone things like bipedal walking, hands with lots of joints.