Page "BEAM robotics" Paragraph 14

Unlike many other types of robots controlled by microcontrollers, BEAM robots are built on the principle of using multiple simple behaviours linked directly to sensor systems with little signal conditioning.

This design philosophy is closely echoed in the classic book " Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology ".

Through a series of thought experiments, this book explores the development of complex robot behaviours through simple inhibitory and excitory sensor links to the actuators.

Microcontrollers and programming are usually not a part of a traditional ( aka., " pure " ) BEAM robot due to the very low-level hardware-centric design philosophy.