[Norm M.]

I agree with Andy. Greater availability of stock parts can level the field. In the past, there were teams that were making their own gears. Personally, I like being able to order them.

You are never going to completely level the field when you are competing with the big teams with the big budgets and the excellent resources. I think it is more important that the teams with the small budgets and the limited expertise can get the parts required to create a mobile base. And things like sprockets, gears, keyed shaft, and other items make that more obtainable.

A level field is like a wheel that rolls without slipping, a frictionless surface, and many of those other assumptions we learned to automatically write down at the begining of every dynamics problem...