I use http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html for my panramics, find it very good. No robotic arm though.

buy this

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_1&products_id=101364

Will it be like those panoramic cameras they used to do the school photograph? Every year someone would stand at one end then run round the back of the camera to appear again at the other, making their own twin.