Improved Robotic Guidance Sensor/Algorithm
A lot of robot constructors use the trial and error method of guiding the movement of their devices. ....
... Get a sensor reading
... move left ..
.... get sensor reading, if better move left again, if not, move right
.... and so on...
If you were to take a group of phototransistors, maybe 10 or 12, and arrange them in a forward looking semicircle, then some of the transistors would get more signal level from a target ....maybe a light, a fire source, or a white line .... than other transistors.
Maybe use some sort of recessed mount for each phototransistor to improve the signal contrast level.
If you could associate the specific 'highest signal received' transistor with a direction command to the steering hardware, maybe you would have a more efficient directional command algorithm.
... not sure if this has already been done or not.
If you could get the device to respond to a laser pointer, move it around, back and forth .... sort of a robotic cat.