Droid sensorscope

A droid sensorscope, also simply known as a periscope^[1], was a device standard on R-series astromech droids, equipped with a full-spectrum transceiver with electro-photo receptors, dedicated energy receptors, heat detector, and motion detectors. Data received through the sensorscope was routed to the droid's Intellex IV internal computer.^[2] It was an extendible auxiliary visual imaging system^[3] that raised up from a panel in the droid's dome, allowing it to see what shorter droids usually couldn't.^[4]

R2-D2 used his sensorscope at various times including to navigate through a swamp on Dagobah after falling into the water shortly after the Battle of Hoth.^[5] He later used it to see after falling into the sands of Tatooine to escape Jabba the Hutt's sail barge during the Rescue of Han Solo.^[6]

Behind the scenes[]

R2-D2's sensor first seen rising out of the swamp in Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back was referred to as a "periscope" in some early material surrounding the movie.^[1]^[7] The device was named a "sensorscope" with the release of Kenner's second R2-D2 action figure in 1981.^[8] The figure's packaging featured an image of the droid using a different scanner on Hoth but the toy's scanner more resembled the one seen on Dagobah.^[9] The specific scanner was later identified as a "droid sensorscope" by the Star Wars Customizable Card Game and Star Wars: Behind the Magic.^[2]^[10]