To make our robot fully autonomous and yet efficient, it needed a way to locate algae. While we first considered making it with technology similar to a Roomba vacuum, in which it skims every part of the waterway and only changes direction when it senses an edge, we realized that this method would be highly inefficient. Though Cyanobacteria can come to colonize the entire surface of a pond, this is unlikely in large waterways. According to the USGS, in Lake Okeechobee, of which we did the most research, 10% of the lake's surface contains about 90% of its total Cyanobacterial mass (Environmental Health Program). We needed our robot to target this 10% and not waste time and energy where Cyanobacteria were not present. Additionally, controlling all Cyanobacteria is almost impossible. However, our mentor Rudolph Behrens advised us to target the bloom. While cyanobacteria are naturally present and necessary in all aquatic ecosystems, it is the blooms that cause the most harm. Therefore, we needed a detection system that would target blooms and not waste time and energy skimming areas where Cyanobacteria was not present in large enough numbers to cause any real harm.