DOUBLE PENDULUM CHAOTIC MODEL FOR PSEUDORANDOM NUMBER GENERATION

The double pendulum is a system of two connected masses, one tethered to a point in space and the other tethered to the first mass. The double pendulum exhibits chaotic motion under the influence of an external force such as the gravitational force. The chaotic motion is sensitive to the initial conditions or positions of the masses, resulting in an infinite number of possible motion paths. The chaotic motion paths produced by the double pendulum can be exploited to produce binary sequences. This thesis focuses on determining if the chaotic motion of the double pendulum can be used as a pseudorandom number generator (PRNG) by modeling the motion and using different methods of extracting bits from the motion paths to produce pseudorandom binary sequences. The pseudorandom binary sequences are then evaluated using tests for randomness as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The methods of bit extraction can then be compared based on their NIST test results to ultimately determine the practicality of the double pendulum as a PRNG. Considerations can be made for different methods of bit extraction or the use of different chaotic motions.

Department dc:contributor.department

Applied Mathematics (MA)

Grantor dc:publisher

Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Hard, Ryan C.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Martinsen, Thor

Statement dc:rights

• This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10945/64937

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:calhoun.nps.edu:10945/64937