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Electronic Chaos System

The Electronic Chaos System was developed by Dr. Ken Kiers and student researchers at TU. If you would like to see the Chaos System, which is sold and marketed through PASCO, please click here. The second version of the Electronic Chaos System is currently under developement by TU student researchers and Faculty.

elec chaos sys2"I spent most of my spare time at Taylor developing a commercial version of the chaos circuit. This was by far the most rewarding project I have ever undertaken because I had the opportunity to take this project all the way from breadboarded prototype to commercial mass production.  I only took 2 electronics classes while I was at Taylor, but those 2 classes gave me the foundation I needed to make this project a success.  I certainly didn't know everything I needed to know going into the project, but my education allowed me to know where to look and what questions to ask when I came to a roadblock.  Learning how to become a lifelong learner is really the most important thing that my Taylor physics education imparted to me."

    - David Simons - TU physics department graduate

Past Student Chaos Research

Chaos occurs when small changes in initial conditions lead to unpredictable results. Chaos is displayed in the non-linear systems controlling the weather, the beating of the human heart, and the solar system, but it can also occur in relatively simple systems. In recent years, electronic circuits have been used to demonstrate simply defined chaotic systems. Kiers, Schmidt, and Sprott have developed a simple chaotic circuit based on the non-linear equation. To view thier paper, Precision Measurements of a Simple Chaotic Circuit, please click here.

  

 While unpredictability may make the synchronization of chaotic systems seem unlikely, nearly identical chaotic systems can be synchronized. Kevin Little and Jared Schlak conducted Chaos research whereby they realized that a small analog audio signal masked by the output of a chaotic circuit could be recovered by a nearly identical synchronized circuit. The students then used the circuit developed by Kiers, Schmidt, and Sprott to mask and detect audio signals for thier project. 

The New Electronic Chaos System

Student/Researcher David Patterson is currently working on developing the second version of the Electronic Chaos System. The original Chaos system is now sold out and the components it was built with are obsolete. David said, "there are a few small bugs in the system that we are trying to work out." He continued to detail that the new model will have a speed which is 100 times faster in the analog mode than the original Electronic Chaos System. The new system will boast a frequency greater than 3 kilohertz. Another challenge which is being undertaken is the goal to produce a model that can churn out such high speeds without a significant deal of noise. The last step in the developmental process will be to completely modify the existing desktop software for the Chaos system because of the upgrades and new components. Patterson said that he expects a prototype of the Electronic Chaos System 2 to be created by the end of the summer.