ros_numpy

Tools for converting ROS messages to and from numpy arrays. Contains two functions:

• arr = numpify(msg, ...) - try to get a numpy object from a message
• msg = msgify(MessageType, arr, ...) - try and convert a numpy object to a message

Currently supports:

• sensor_msgs.msg.PointCloud2 ↔ structured np.array:

   data = np.zeros(100, dtype=[
     ('x', np.float32),
     ('y', np.float32),
     ('vectors', np.float32, (3,))
   ])
   data['x'] = np.arange(100)
   data['y'] = data['x']*2
   data['vectors'] = np.arange(100)[:,np.newaxis]

   msg = ros_numpy.msgify(PointCloud2, data)

   data = ros_numpy.numpify(msg)

• sensor_msgs.msg.Image ↔ 2/3-D np.array, similar to the function of cv_bridge, but without the dependency on cv2
• nav_msgs.msg.OccupancyGrid ↔ np.ma.array
• geometry.msg.Vector3 ↔ 1-D np.array. hom=True gives [x, y, z, 0]
• geometry.msg.Point ↔ 1-D np.array. hom=True gives [x, y, z, 1]
• geometry.msg.Quaternion ↔ 1-D np.array, [x, y, z, w]
• geometry.msg.Transform ↔ 4×4 np.array, the homogeneous transformation matrix
• geometry.msg.Pose ↔ 4×4 np.array, the homogeneous transformation matrix from the origin

Support for more types can be added with:

@ros_numpy.converts_to_numpy(SomeMessageClass)
def convert(my_msg):
    return np.array(...)

@ros_numpy.converts_from_numpy(SomeMessageClass)
def convert(my_array):
    return SomeMessageClass(...)

Any extra args or kwargs to numpify or msgify will be forwarded to your conversion function

Future work

• Add simple conversions for:

  • geometry_msgs.msg.Inertia