A Braitenberg vehicle is a concept conceived in a thought experiment by the Italian cyberneticist Valentino Braitenberg in his book Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology. The book models the animal world in a minimalistic and constructive way, from simple reactive behaviours (like phototaxis) through the simplest vehicles, to the formation of concepts, spatial behaviour, and generation of ideas.
For the simplest vehicles, the motion of the vehicle is directly controlled by some sensors (for example photo cells). Yet the resulting behaviour may appear complex or even intelligent.