Image of Alice in Wonderland at the Mad Hatter's tea party You are cordially invited to afternoon tea and biscuits wine and chocolate

Astronomy Tea Talks at Caltech

Mondays, Hameetman auditorium (Cahill)
Tea:  4.00pm
Talk: 4.15pm

Organized by:

2012 - 2013 season:
4 February 2013 Reed Riddle (Caltech)

Building a Better Robot: Designing Automated Control Systems for Astronomical Instruments

The world of astronomy research is moving towards an era of more automated observatories and instruments. From networks of small telescopes to the demands of the next generation of large telescopes, the ability to achieve the scientific goals of these projects will require major investment in creating hardware and software systems that can be partially or fully automated. Design decisions made early in these projects can severely impact the ability to automate systems. While there is no single correct way to automate a system, there are many choices that can maximize (or minimize) capability, efficiency, and scientific output. In this presentation, I will discuss my experience with two fully autonomous astronomical systems: the Thirty Meter Telescope site testing program, and Robo-AO, the first astronomical laser guide star adaptive optics system designed to operate completely independent of human supervision. I will compare and contrast the two systems, examine how the design decisions impacted the final operational performance, and evaluate the lessons learned.
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Last modified on 01st Feb 2013 by Jean-Rene Gauthier.  

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