I am trying to put together a budget and plan for building a robot camera on a track system. I know nothing about robotics, but have experience in engineering. I would like the robot to be controlled via wifi from a computer, with the ability to transmit video feed, but also transmit information regarding temperature, humidity and possibly other variables as well. The camera needs to be able to move in the z direction (up and down), to large heights, but does not need to be able to pan or tilt, simply view straight on. So I need 3 degrees of freedom, 2 from the tracks, and one from the arm/ telescoping feature of some sort. Is this doable? What sort of price estimate is realistic?
We recommend viewing this recent thread about a very similar topic : robotshop.com/forum/showthread.php?1471-How-do-I-put-together-a-repeat-motion-control-head-for-a-camera
In your case, we recommend mounting a WiFi IP camera on a linear actuator. Then you will need to mount the entire assembly on a tracked mobile base. The size of the base will depend on the size of your assembly.