sound_play provides a ROS node that translates commands on a ROS topic (robotsound) into sounds. The node supports built-in sounds, playing OGG/WAV files, and doing speech synthesis via festival. C++ and Python bindings allow this node to be used without understanding the details of the message format, allowing faster development and resilience to message format changes.
The sound_play package provides a way to say strings, play WAV or OGG files and to play builtin sounds. Documentation for the package can be found here at http://www.ros.org/wiki/sound_play
Multiple sounds can be played concurrently (up to 4 currently because of limitations in pygame).
Python and C++ client classes are provide for ease of use:
Example uses are in: