Braitenberg Vehicle Simulator: Visualizing the Classic Thought Experiment

Braitenberg vehicles are a thought experiment created by Valentino Braitenberg that demonstrate how simple machines can display human-like behavior. These vehicles have impacted education, appearing as a topic in various undergraduate courses, however, there have not been many tools to visualize these vehicles beyond the source text. We develop a Braitenberg vehicle simulator and assess its educational effectiveness in a real classroom. We find that our simulator increased both learning and enjoyment of the topic.