I'm building a mount for a small IR sensor which will look very similar to this, minus the large camera.
I am wondering whether or not it would be necessary to do calculations to ensure that the structure is safe and will not collapse.
The potential problems I see are the bending moment due to the weight of the top motor. Would I calculate this and compare to the yield stresses in the bolts of the bracket? Potential buckling? Would it be worthwhile to use a software such as Ansys to run a stress simulation? The weight of the camera is very small and would not effect any calculations. I am using aluminium. Thanks