armw 2.1.0

ARMW: Agnostic Robot MiddleWare

Agnostic Robot Middleware

ARMW is a Python shim layer for writing robot middleware code that can run on ROS 1, ROS 2, or ARMW's native backend (which has no external dependencies) with the same application-facing API.

Use ARMW when you want node code to depend on a small compatibility layer instead of directly depending on rospy or rclpy.

Quick Start

Install the package from PyPi:

pip install armw

Or locally after cloning (-e for editable mode):

pip install -e .

Select a backend explicitly when you want deterministic behavior:

export ARMW_MIDDLEWARE=native

On Windows PowerShell:

$env:ARMW_MIDDLEWARE = "native"

Create and run a minimal node:

import armw


class MinimalNode(armw.ArmwNode):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__("minimal_node")
        self.log_info("minimal_node started")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    armw.run_node(MinimalNode, node_name="minimal_node")

More complete guides are in docs/:

• Quick start
• Writing nodes
• Running nodes
• Using threads
• Native backend

Backend Selection

ARMW chooses a middleware backend at import time.

Set ARMW_MIDDLEWARE to force one of:

• native
• ros1
• ros2

If ARMW_MIDDLEWARE is not set, ARMW tries to detect ROS 1 first, then ROS 2. The native backend is best for tests and local processes that do not need a ROS runtime.