I don't think I have seen this posted, if so, I apologise.
Here is an insightful article in The Economist Magazine about Dean:
http://www.economist.com/node/162955...ry_id=16295592
It features FIRST at the start and end of the article and refers to it as "a glitzy robotics competition".
It is an excellent magazine that publishes a quarterly technology review.
You might also want to peruse at least two other robotics stories from the same issue.
One is about a robot that can forage for its own fuel. It is in part funded by DARPA. It is called EATR lol
http://www.economist.com/node/162957...ry_id=16295752
Another is about the advances in creating metal skins that can heal themselves.
http://www.economist.com/node/162956...ry_id=16295654
Oh heck, you may as well check out the nanobots as small as amoebas too.
http://www.economist.com/node/162956...ry_id=16295646
Here come the Terminators?
IMHO each of these articles could be their own threads.
Thoughts please.