Ingo Rechenberg - Evolution Strategies For Technical Innovation

I found a nice video interview with Ingo Rechenberg from the Technical University of Berlin - TUB. See here or you can download the (.mov) file here - this last one is in German.

It is a short documentary-like news upon Rechenberg's work. The so-called evolution strategy's Experimentum Crucis is shown and Rechenberg performs a short simulation of that experiment - an experimental optimization¹. The image below there is the Experimentum Crucis set up.



The video is a nice and very interesting summary about Rechenberg's research.

Here you are some video stills:


The original issue on Der Spiegel magazine:



A closer view upon Rechenberg picture:



Ingo Rechenberg at Sahara Desert researching the Sandfish:



Rechenberg among children comparing the working of the Evolution Strategy with the blindfold game:



Rechenberg in front of the Magic Square problem which he solved through an Evolution Strategy:



The multi-winglets evolved via an Evolution Strategy:



Closer view on the multi-winglets:




Der Bioniker:



And, finally, the frog himself :)





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Notes:

1 - Experimental Optimization means that you have a real physical, mechanical, electrical, optical, chemical, etc, object or some model, like physical, of the real object - and absolutely no computer - and you want to alter some of its properties (size, charge, temperature, pressure, etc.) in order to achieve an improved performance according to some criterion (criteria). Before the end of the 1960s Ingo Rechenberg and Hans-Paul Schwefel did not think of using the Evolution Strategy as a numerical method. Computers were not yet available in larger numbers, and if so, their power was rather weak.

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