Robot Operating System Cookbook

Understanding the ROS pluginlib

Software plugins are a well-known approach in software applications, and are used as add-ons for the existing application and to provide some new features. Moreover, the plugins enable an infrastructure for the software architecture development to accept new features whenever required. In other words, using this method, which is highly modular, we can enhance the capabilities of the software to any level in the future and deliver this to the user in the form of updates in runtime without modifying the main application.

The software plugins are shared objects (.so) or dynamic link libraries that do not have any dependencies with the main software and are built without having to link to the main application code. ...