Casebook
DEXTER
Full Name
Deployable Extreme Terrain Enabled Robot
Companion
DIDI, formally known as DEXTER Instructed Driver Interface
Siblings
About 50 undergraduate and graduate engineering students and faculty from Case Western Reserve University known as Team Case
Experience-based Learning Opportunity
Top 20 showing at the 2007 DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Grand Challenge for autonomous robotic ground vehicles at the former George Air Force Base in Victorville, Calif.
Retired To
A Novel Combination
The car is a novel combination of a road-tested vehicle and sensors, paired with a biologically inspired approach to environmental perception, humanistic driving instincts and vehicle control.
Occasional Spare Part
Leading by example and learning through experience, DEXTER and DIDI encouraged others to be self-driven, independent thinkers like themselves. DEXTER and DIDI as demanding but dedicated teachers forced students and faculty to look beyond the classroom and the laboratory for new intellectual frontiers—and the occasional spare part.
Rolling Good Will
Through their tenacity, DEXTER and DIDI overcame budgetary and mechanical limitations as well as random programming infestations to be the university's rolling good-will ambassadors.
Honorary Membership
In recognition of their meritorious service to Case Western Reserve University and the Case School of Engineering, DEXTER and DIDI were granted honorary memberships in The Case Alumni Association and The Alumni Association of Case Western Reserve University. DEXTER and DIDI are entitled to all the rights and privileges of membership in these two organizations.
Well-established Engineering
Through a partnership with ENSCO Inc., a well-established engineering consulting and contracting firm based in Falls Church, Va., Team Case modified DEXTER—which was originally designed by ENSCO and placed 6th in the Desert Challenge in 2005 and has been lent to the university.