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US 2014/0235138 A1Published application
Distributed System of Autonomously Controlled Mobile Agents
AssigneeAnki, Inc.
InventorsBoris Sofman, Hanns W. Tappeiner, Mark Palatucci
Life of this patent
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AssigneeAnki, Inc.
InventorsBoris Sofman, Hanns W. Tappeiner, Mark Palatucci
Estimating the term…
A system includes a drivable surface that includes location encoding markings. A mobile agent is provided that includes a drive motor, an imaging system 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. A basestation is provided that includes a controller operatively coupled to a basestation wireless transceiver. Via wireless communication between the wireless transceivers of the mobile agent and the basestation, an action to be implemented by the mobile agent can be determined by the basestation and communicated to the mobile agent, whereupon the microcontroller of the mobile agent controls detailed movement of the mobile agent on the drivable surface based on images taken of the markings of the drivable surface by the imaging system to cause the mobile agent to implement the action on the drivable surface.
A method of controlling movement of one or more self-propelled mobile agents on a surface having a plurality of machine-readable codes indicating locations on the surface, wherein each self-propelled mobile agent includes a sensor configured to detect the machine-readable codes as the mobile agent travels along the surface, the method comprising, for at least one self-propelled mobile agent, performing the steps of:
A method of controlling movement of one or more self-propelled toy vehicles on a drivable surface that includes markings which define at least one path of toy vehicle travel on the drivable surface and which encode locations on the drivable surface, wherein each toy vehicle includes an imaging system for acquiring images of the markings, the method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.