Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jul 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aspc..442..321w&link_type=abstract
Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XX. ASP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 442, proceedings of a Conference held at Se
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Instrument control system (ICS) suites are a continually evolving class of software packages that are highly dependent upon the design choices and application programming interfaces (APIs) of the observatory control system (OCS), as well as the hardware choices for motors and electronics. We present the ICS for MMT-POL, a 1-5 μm polarimeter for the MMT telescope, in the context of being a transitional step between the software packages developed for facility class instruments at the University of Florida (UF), such as Flamingos-II and CanariCam, and in preparation for 30 m-class instruments. Our goals for improving ICS suites are to make them (a) portable (compile once, run anywhere), (b) highly modular and extensible (through the re-use of common libraries), (c) multi-threaded (to allow multiple tasks to be performed in parallel), (d) smart, and (e) easy to use and maintain. An ICS should also be well-defined and use mature languages (we choose Java and Python) and common standards (such as XML and the FITS file format). We also note that as hardware moves away from serial communications to ethernet, the use of TCP sockets makes communication faster and easier. Below, we present our design choices for the MMT-POL ICS and discuss our reasons for these choices and potential issues that must be addressed for future ICS suites ready for thirty meter class instruments.
Dewahl K.
Eikenberry Stephen Scott
Jones Terry J.
Krejny Megan
Packham Christopher
No associations
LandOfFree
The MMT-POL Instrument Control System does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with The MMT-POL Instrument Control System, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The MMT-POL Instrument Control System will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-989290