In a method for controlling an orienting/positioning system, the orienting system comprises at least one sensor means, an external motion detection device for detecting an externally-caused motion in the environment of the sensor means and actuator means for controlling an orienting and/or positioning action of the sensor means. The method comprises the steps of: (a) Evaluating pre-action output information of said sensor means in order to detect the position of a pattern in the input space of the sensor means; (b) Deciding on a targeted post-action position of said pattern in the input space of said sensor means; (c) Defining a command for the actuator means by mapping any deviation of the pre-action position and the targeted post-action position in the input space coordinates of the sensor-means to actuator control coordinates using a predefined mapping function; (d) Orienting/Positioning the sensor means by the actuator means according to the defined command in order to carry out an orienting/positioning action; (e) Detecting the real post-action position of the patterns in the input space of said sensor means; (f) Detecting external motion of the pattern; and (g) Adapting the mapping function used in step (c), wherein steps (a) to (g) are repeated using the respectively adapted mapping function. An output signal from the external-motion detection device can be used to control the adaptation step (g).