Python binding

Basically there are two ways to create python bindings for your ros libraries. One way is to start from scratch and shows all the necessary details to create the python interfaces for c++ libraries in CMakeLists.txt. You can find a working example from https://github.com/luator/boost-python-catkin-example

The necessary step is lised below:

1. find the boost python component and python libraries.
2. catkin_python_setup()
3. add_libraries()
4. install the shared the libraries called by python interfaces to the place where python can find it.

The second way is to using the tool developed by ETHZ-ASL. Their tool use the catkin_simple() package to simplify the cmakelists script you need to write and hides all the details within their helper package–python_module. At a first glimpse, it’s very confusing. But if you understand how the first method works, you can basically create a tool similar to ASL’s, or even a better one.

The helper package is called python_module. It provides a script function add_python_export_library() that helps you to find the boost python component, python libraries folder, python include folder. It also adds the libraries by invoking the native cmake command add_libraries() in their python_module package. The ‘catkin_python_setup()’ is called as well. The ‘python_module’ marks the installed files as ADDITIONAL_MAKE_CLEAN_FILES, which makes updating of the python module handy.

They have several assumptions when using their tool to create python bindings.

1. The python interfaces are separated from c++ ros package as a new package.
2. The python binding ros package names after the original c++ package with a suffix _python.
3. The name of the installed python module in dists-package will be the same as the c++ package.

A typical example of their method can be found here

The detailed instruction of ETHZ-ASL’s method can be found here