Kyrre Glette and Jim Tørresen from the University of Oslo are working to create 'evolving hardware'. The concept is that the hardware pairs up 'genes' at runtime to find the optimal hardware design for it's given task. The hardware will iterate through 20-30 thousand 'generations' in making these evolutionary choices. In the real world this is expected to take seconds for the hardware to accomplish. The two researchers have previously created a robotic chicken that works on this 'evolving hardware' principle. The chicken was called 'Henriette' and it was able to learn to walk on it's own.

The two hope to use their research to improve how oil companies use robotics to install deep water oil pipes.

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