Personally, I'd be all for them using the wheel design. The student is still learning (albeit a little bit differently, but they're still learning), and so there shouldn't be much to discourage this. Besides, if the wheel was to be designed the same way, wouldn't there be no traceable differences between the two? So why re-draw a part you've already drawn, if it won't change?

Not too sure about the rules, but morally, assuming it's not an entire robot, I have no issues with them rolling out the new wheels.