Distributed System of Autonomously Controlled Toy Vehicles

A toy system comprising:

• a drivable surface comprised of a plurality of segments, wherein each segment includes markings which encode locations on the segment and which encode a location of the segment in the drivable surface;
• at least one toy vehicle or mobile agent, each toy vehicle including at least one motor for imparting motive force to the toy vehicle, an imaging system operative for taking images of the markings, a vehicle wireless transceiver, and a microcontroller operatively coupled to the motor, the imaging system, and the vehicle wireless transceiver, the microcontroller operative for controlling, via the motor of the toy vehicle, detailed movement of the toy vehicle on the drivable surface based on images taken of the markings of the drivable surface by the imaging system;
• and
• a basestation comprising a controller and a basestation wireless transceiver operatively coupled to the controller, the controller operative:
• for determining via wireless communication from each vehicle wireless transceiver to the basestation wireless transceiver a current location of the toy vehicle on the drivable surface based on images taken of the markings of the drivable surface by the imaging system of the toy vehicle;
• for storing a virtual representation of the drivable surface and for determining based on said virtual representation and the current location of each toy vehicle on the drivable surface an action to be taken the toy vehicle on the drivable surface;
• and
• for communicating to the microcontroller of each toy vehicle the action to be taken by the toy vehicle on the drivable surface via wireless communication from the basestation wireless transceiver to the vehicle wireless transceiver.