Challenges of containerization and robotization the telescope control system for large robotic telescope

J. J. Fernández-Valdivia; Josué Barrera Martín; M. Torres; J. León Gil; D. M. Arnold; R. J. Smith; Víctor Rodríguez Herreros

doi:10.1117/12.2629997

29 August 2022 Challenges of containerization and robotization the telescope control system for large robotic telescope

J. J. Fernández-Valdivia, Josué Barrera Martín, M. Torres, J. León Gil, D. M. Arnold, R. J. Smith, Víctor Rodríguez Herreros

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 12189, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy VII; 121890S (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629997
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2022, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Abstract

Being the NRT¹ an international collaboration to design and build a leading astronomical facility, it will be focused in the optical and near infrared ranges for the emergent area of time domain astronomy. This will rely on the mix of a large collecting area (4 m diameter), quick response (<30 s), and full robotic operation. The Telescope Level System (TLS) will be responsible for controlling, coordinating, monitoring and planning, both hardware and software systems, involved in the operation of the telescope. The NRT control system architecture aims to follow best practices in services decoupling and deployment, following recent techniques in containerization and orchestration (dockerization). This type of system will give a great stability, scalability, and flexibility, allowing new services to be added or removed, minimizing downtime scenarios. This approach is based on the know-how gathered with the control system (GCS)2 of the Spanish 10 m telescope GTC (Gran Telescopio de Canarias)3, which has been operating successfully for more than a decade. Currently, GCS does not support a robotic control, being the challenge for the NRT project^6,7, to extend the functionality of the GCS with this new feature of autonomous operation^4,5. The NRT aims to keep the GCS model of decoupling system components, having distributed execution and communications. Another advantage is the abstraction from low-level hardware and software, which GCS offers at the moment of integration new entities into the system. We discuss the interest and possible deployment of this kind of TLS for future based robotic facilities.

Conference Presentation

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J. J. Fernández-Valdivia, Josué Barrera Martín, M. Torres, J. León Gil, D. M. Arnold, R. J. Smith, and Víctor Rodríguez Herreros "Challenges of containerization and robotization the telescope control system for large robotic telescope", Proc. SPIE 12189, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy VII, 121890S (29 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629997

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