Development of a state machine sequencer for the Keck Interferometer: evolution, development, and lessons learned using a CASE tool approach

Leonard J. Reder; Andrew Booth; Jonathan Hsieh; Kellee R. Summers

doi:10.1117/12.548830

15 September 2004 Development of a state machine sequencer for the Keck Interferometer: evolution, development, and lessons learned using a CASE tool approach

Leonard J. Reder, Andrew Booth, Jonathan Hsieh, Kellee R. Summers

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5496, Advanced Software, Control, and Communication Systems for Astronomy; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.548830
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2004, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Abstract

This paper presents a discussion of the evolution of a sequencer from a simple Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) based sequencer into a complex implementation designed utilizing UML (Unified Modeling Language) methodologies and a Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tool approach. The main purpose of the Interferometer Sequencer (called the IF Sequencer) is to provide overall control of the Keck Interferometer to enable science operations to be carried out by a single operator (and/or observer). The interferometer links the two 10m telescopes of the W. M. Keck Observatory at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The IF Sequencer is a high-level, multi-threaded, Harel finite state machine software program designed to orchestrate several lower-level hardware and software hard real-time subsystems that must perform their work in a specific and sequential order. The sequencing need not be done in hard real-time. Each state machine thread commands either a high-speed real-time multiple mode embedded controller via CORBA, or slower controllers via EPICS Channel Access interfaces. The overall operation of the system is simplified by the automation. The UML is discussed and our use of it to implement the sequencer is presented. The decision to use the Rhapsody product as our CASE tool is explained and reflected upon. Most importantly, a section on lessons learned is presented and the difficulty of integrating CASE tool automatically generated C++ code into a large control system consisting of multiple infrastructures is presented.

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Leonard J. Reder, Andrew Booth, Jonathan Hsieh, and Kellee R. Summers "Development of a state machine sequencer for the Keck Interferometer: evolution, development, and lessons learned using a CASE tool approach", Proc. SPIE 5496, Advanced Software, Control, and Communication Systems for Astronomy, (15 September 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.548830

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KEYWORDS

Real-time computing

Interferometers

Control systems

C++

Telescopes

Keck Observatory

Human-machine interfaces

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