ros_control combination with actionlib

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You only implicitly refer to ros_control in your question body ("I have an interface that reads from a command topic and writes to a state topic"), so I won't address that bit.

Now I want to use a action server to connect this interface to moveit (which has an action client how I understood it so far?)

Yes, one of the controllers you can configure MoveIt to use makes use of an action client to communicate with whatever entity exposes a FollowJointTrajectory action server (whether that entity is a ros_control stack or something else doesn't matter, as long as the interface is the same).

But before I continue down this road writing an action server, I wanted to ask if actionlib is the way to go for this.

Having such a FollowJointTrajectory action server makes sense, even if you don't want to use your robot/driver with MoveIt, as it provides a convenient way for clients to command your robot (in joint space).

For a simple setup I would recommend to take a look at the SimpleActionServer, as that takes care of a lot of details for you (but doesn't support concurrent goals and some other more fancy features).

Edit:

I am using the ABB YuMi, though with the 'new' EGM and RWS libraries.

Yes, I figured.

I based my code upon https://github.com/kth-ros-pkg/yumi/ and changed it where necessary. I implemented an actionserver now, but looking at source code tells me that ros_control could also takes care of this, so I've done double work essentially, since they use ros_control as well in their package. Hence I think I have created the issue I was trying to solve myself. I will try and use the ros_control stack instead of my own creation for now.

That would be a nice way to approach this.

I've worked with KTH for a bit on the ros_control side of this YuMi hardware_interface but the work has stalled for now. I'd be interested in getting that restarted and am coordinating with ABB Corporate Research in Sweden. If you're interested, can you contact me off-list?