OpenROCS: a software tool to control robotic observatories

Josep Colomé; Josep Sanz; Francesc Vilardell; Ignasi Ribas; Pere Gil

doi:10.1117/12.926906

24 September 2012 OpenROCS: a software tool to control robotic observatories

Josep Colomé, Josep Sanz, Francesc Vilardell, Ignasi Ribas, Pere Gil

Proceedings Volume 8451, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy II; 845127 (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.926906
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

We present the Open Robotic Observatory Control System (OpenROCS), an open source software platform developed for the robotic control of telescopes. It acts as a software infrastructure that executes all the necessary processes to implement responses to the system events that appear in the routine and non-routine operations associated to data-flow and housekeeping control. The OpenROCS software design and implementation provides a high flexibility to be adapted to different observatory configurations and event-action specifications. It is based on an abstract model that is independent of the specific hardware or software and is highly configurable. Interfaces to the system components are defined in a simple manner to achieve this goal. We give a detailed description of the version 2.0 of this software, based on a modular architecture developed in PHP and XML configuration files, and using standard communication protocols to interface with applications for hardware monitoring and control, environment monitoring, scheduling of tasks, image processing and data quality control. We provide two examples of how it is used as the core element of the control system in two robotic observatories: the Joan Oró Telescope at the Montsec Astronomical Observatory (Catalonia, Spain) and the SuperWASP Qatar Telescope at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Canary Islands, Spain).

Citation Download Citation

Josep Colomé, Josep Sanz, Francesc Vilardell, Ignasi Ribas, and Pere Gil "OpenROCS: a software tool to control robotic observatories", Proc. SPIE 8451, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy II, 845127 (24 September 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.926906

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KEYWORDS

Observatories

Telescopes

Control systems

Robotics

Domes

Astronomy

Environmental monitoring

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