The following is a table of the hardware components that can be used for building this project. You can also see the rough price and a purchase link for each component.
List of hardware components:
| No | Component name | Estimated price (USD) | Purchase link |
| 1 | Webcam | 32 | https://amzn.com/B003LVZO8S |
| 2 | Dynamixel AX-12A servo with mounting bracket | 76 | https://amzn.com/B0051OXJXU |
| 3 | USB-to-Dynamixel Adapter | 50 | http://www.robotshop.com/en/robotis-usb-to-dynamixel-adapter.html |
| 4 | Extra 3-pin cables for AX-12 servos | 12 | http://www.trossenrobotics.com/p/100mm-3-Pin-DYNAMIXEL-Compatible-Cable-10-Pack |
| 5 | Power adapter | 5 | https://amzn.com/B005JRGOCM |
| 6 | 6-port AX/MX power hub | 5 | http://www.trossenrobotics.com/6-port-ax-mx-power-hub |
| 7 | USB extension cable | 1 | https://amzn.com/B00YBKA5Z0 |
| Total cost with shipping and tax | Around 190-200 |
If you are thinking that the total cost is not affordable, then there are cheap alternatives to do this project too. The main heart of this project is the Dynamixel servo. We can replace this servo with RC servos, which only cost around $10, and an Arduino board costing around $20 can be used to control the servo too. The ROS and Arduino interfacing will be discussed in the upcoming chapters, so you can think about porting the face tracker project using an Arduino and RC servo.
Okay, let's look at the software prerequisites of the project. The prerequisites include the ROS framework, OS version, and ROS packages:
| No | Name of the software | Estimated price (USD) | Download link |
| 1 | Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | Free | http://releases.ubuntu.com/16.04/ |
| 2 | ROS Kinetic LTS | Free | http://wiki.ros.org/kinetic/Installation/Ubuntu |
| 3 | ROS usb_cam package | Free | http://wiki.ros.org/usb_cam |
| 4 | ROS cv_bridge package | Free | http://wiki.ros.org/cv_bridge |
| 5 | ROS Dynamixel controller | Free | https://github.com/arebgun/dynamixel_motor |
| 6 | Windows 7 or higher | Around $120 | https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/software-download/windows7 |
| 7 | RoboPlus (Windows application) | Free | http://www.robotis.com/download/software/RoboPlusWeb%28v1.1.3.0%29.exe |
This table gives you an idea of the software we are going to be using for this project. We may need both Windows and Ubuntu for doing this project. It will be great if you have dual operating systems on your computer.
Let's see how to install all this software first.