[Chris Fultz]

Your last post beat me to it

I was going to suggest that you try to seel / license your idea to someone who already makes robot parts for FIRST - they would know from experience what will work.

And,as a side note, the US patent process is not only expensive but it is also a slow process - mainly to be sure what you are patenting is really new and novel. My last patent, which was managed by corporate patent attorneys, took well over 12 months from application to actual patent.