The WEAVE observatory control system

Picó, Sergio; Abrams, Don Carlos; Benn, Chris; Dominguez, Lilian; Fariña, C.; Delgado, José Miguel; Martín, Carlos; Cano, Diego; Salasnich, Bernardo; Guest, Steve; Gribbin, Frank; Skvarč, J.; Gafton, E.; Dalton, Gavin; Middleton, Kevin; Trager, S. C.; Aguerri, J. A. L.; Bonifacio, P.; Vallenari, A.; Carrasco, E.

doi:10.1117/12.2312638

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The embedded Low-Level Control Software (LLS) is designed to perform only simple and atomic operations on each device. It means that complex movements, as sequences of movements or 'recipes', are reserved for the High-Level Control Software (HLS), which is part of the Observatory Control System (OCS) software suite 3 . From the point of view of the HLS and the Engineering Control Panel application, the spectrograph is a black box controllable through a very simple interface: four global variables, or tags, are published in the PAC memory where they can be accessed by HLS using the standard PLCIO library.…”

Section: Simple Section Of Llsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-level control software for the WEAVE spectrograph

Salasnich

Perez

Delgado

et al. 2018

Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy V

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

WEAVE is a wide-field spectroscopy facility for WHT which includes a multi-object dual-beam spectrograph which will operate in the visible wavelength range. The blue beam will cover the range 360-600 nm and the red arm will cover the 580-960 nm range. In these ranges the spectrograph will offer a mid-resolution (~5000), while in three narrower wavelength intervals, two for the blue arm and one for the red one, the instrument will provide a high (~20000) spectrograph resolution. The spectrograph is currently entering the assembly and integration phase and the first light is foreseen in 2019. The entire WEAVE project is managed by an international consortium led by the University of Oxford. The spectrograph is controlled by a coordination process, the so called High-Level Server, which is part of the Observatory Control System (OCS) software suite, and is the single point of access to the embedded control system, the so called Low-Level Control Software, which is based on PAC technology. This paper describes the design of the embedded software for the control of the spectrograph mechanisms. We first describe the interface between high and low level software, then we present the PAC architecture and discuss the low-level state machine. Finally, we provide details on the principal program routines and describe the engineering interface.

show abstract

Section: Simple Section Of Llsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-level control software for the WEAVE spectrograph

Salasnich

Perez

Delgado

et al. 2018

Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy V

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The ACS will act the role of the TCS, the High-Level software [11], requesting actions to the PAC or Low-Level software. This software is developed in Labview and is using the communication interface described above.…”

Section: Acceptance Control Softwarementioning

confidence: 99%

The hardware control system for WEAVE at the William Herschel Telescope

Hernández

Rodríguez-Ramos

Infantes

et al. 2018

Ground-Based and Airborne Telescopes VII

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When an alt-azimuth telescope is tracking at a specific field, it is necessary to use a de-rotator system to compensate the Earth's rotation of the field of view. In order, to keep the telescope tracking the field of view selected, the instrument will need to a rotation system for compensating it [1]. The new WEAVE [2] two degrees field of view requires a new field de-rotator on the top-end of the telescope. The rotator system has been designed with a direct drive motor which eliminates the need for mechanical transmission elements such as gearboxes, speed reducers, and worm gear drives. This design is a huge advantage for the system performance and lifetime because it eliminates undesirable characteristics such as long-time drift, elasticity, and backlash. The hardware control system has been developed with a Rockwell servo-drive and controller. The rotator has to be controlled by the high-level software which is also responsible for the telescope control. This paper summarizes the model developed for simulating and the software which will be used to accept the rotator system. A performance study is also carried out to test the CIP (Common Industrial Protocol) for communications between the high-level software and the rotator hardware.

show abstract

The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

Jin

Trager

Dalton

et al. 2023

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable ‘mini’ integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366−959 nm at R ∼ 5000, or two shorter ranges at R ∼ 20 000. After summarising the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organisation, science drivers and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy’s origins by completing Gaia’s phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for ∼3 million stars and detailed abundances for ∼1.5 million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey ∼0.4 million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey ∼400 neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionised gas in z < 0.5 cluster galaxies; (vi) survey stellar populations and kinematics in ∼25 000 field galaxies at 0.3 ≲ z ≲ 0.7; (vii) study the cosmic evolution of accretion and star formation using >1 million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at z > 2. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator.

show abstract

The WEAVE observatory control system

Cited by 4 publications

References 8 publications

Low-level control software for the WEAVE spectrograph

Low-level control software for the WEAVE spectrograph

The hardware control system for WEAVE at the William Herschel Telescope

The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About