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robots. Even though JOpenShowVar only provides a soft realtime access to the manipulator to be controlled, this middleware package opens up to a variety of possible applications
making it feasible to use different input devices, sensors, and
to develop alternative control methods. Special care has been
devoted to keep JOpenShowVar methods intuitive and easy to
use. The versatility and effectiveness of the interface have
been demonstrated through four case studies. The first two
case studies are open-loop applications, while the last two
case studies describe the possibility of implementing closedloop applications. Recently, our research group employed
JOpenShowVar to realize a framework that makes it possible
to reproduce the challenging operational scenario of controlling offshore cranes via a safe laboratory setup [15].
In the future, different control algorithms, such as the ones
implemented in [16]-[18] may be tested as alternatives to the
standard KRC. Finally, some effort should be put in the standardization process of JOpenShowVar to make it even more
reliable for both the industrial and the academic practice. It is
the opinion of the authors that the key to maximize the longterm, macroeconomic benefits for the robotics industry and
for academic robotics research relies on the closely integrated
development of open content, open standards and open
source. In this perspective, the integration of the proposed interface with ROS is of crucial importance as a necessary future
work. The community of developers at ROS is looking forward to the integration of JOpenShowVar.
Acknowledgments
This work is partly supported by the Research Council of
Norway through the Centers of Excellence funding scheme,
project number 223254 and the Innovation Programme for
Maritime Activities and Offshore Operations, project number
217768.
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Filippo Sanfilippo, Department of Maritime Technology and
Operations, Aalesund University College, Aalesund, Norway.
E-mail: fisa@hials.no.
Lars Ivar Hatledal, Department of Maritime Technology and
Operations, Aalesund University College, Aalesund, Norway.
E-mail: laht@hials.no.
Houxiang Zhang, Department of Maritime Technology and
Operations, Aalesund University College, Aalesund, Norway.
E-mail: hozh@hials.no.
Massimiliano Fago, Industrial Marking and Tracking Systems
(IMTS) Società a Responsabilità Limitata (S.r.l.) Company,
Taranto, Italy. E-mail: massimiliano.fago@gmail.com.
Kristin Ytterstad Pettersen, Department of Engineering
Cybernetics, Norwegian University of Science and
Technology, Trondheim, Norway. E-mail: kristin.y.pettersen@
itk.ntnu.no.

DECEMBER 2015

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http://www http://www.android.com/ http://www.leapmotion.com/ http://www http://www.forcedimension.com/products/omega-7/overview http://http:// http://www.kuka-robotics.com/ http://www.kuka-robotics.com/en/products/software/
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2015
