I have an early lego robot kit from 2002 (four years after the first mindstorms) that runs on some sort of learned motion memory instead of a computer interface. It has two motors on either side and a rotation sensor (rotary encoder?). It has a mode to teach it a series of set positions for each motor and three run program modes: single cycle, repeat, forward-reverse. It had a weird problem that if you left it off for awhile the RAM update data would somehow leak into the piezo buzzer driver and cause creepy static noises. The manual even addresses this and says to turn it on and off a few times or take out the batteries.
fail
The part that the head is attached to is the rotary sensor, which is also the restart cycle switch (or reverse cycle, don't remember which, but it is also very loose). So you can see that the project they show on the box...doesn't actually work because it resets itelf if it tries to move and the head gets jarred.