In artificial life, bits of information were used to represent bacteria or members of a species, each of which moved, multiplied, or died in computer simulations.
[14] In Germany, it was Wolfgang Banzhaf, who, together with his students Peter Dittrich and Jens Ziegler, developed various artificial chemistry models.
Jens Ziegler, as part of his PhD thesis, proved that an artificial chemistry could be used to control a small Khepera robot .
Since then he became a professor in Jena where he investigates artificial chemistries as a way to define a general theory of constructive dynamical systems.
Tiny environments are simulated in the Autoverse and filled with populations of a simple, designed lifeform, Autobacterium lamberti.
The purpose of the Autoverse is to allow Copies to explore the life that had evolved there after it had been run on a significantly large segment of the simulated universe (referred to as "Planet Lambert").