Langton's ant is a two-dimensional universal Turing machine with a very simple set of rules but complex emergent behavior. It was invented by Chris Langton in 1986 and runs on a square lattice of black and white cells.

• At a white square, turn 90° clockwise, flip the color of the square, move forward one unit
• At a black square, turn 90° counter-clockwise, flip the color of the square, move forward one unit

produced with original.py

The Cellular Automaton can be extended to more colours and rules. For example LRRRRRLLR where L = Left and R = Right. This rule set will cause the ant:

• to turn L on colour 0 and add 1 to change the colour
• to turn R on colour 1 and add 1 to change the colour
• to turn R on colour 2 and add 1 to change the colour and so on.

Two variations are shown bellow:

Rule Set: LLRR, produced with cardioid.py

Rule Set: LRRRRRLLR, produced with square.py