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USM Instrument Building Group: ICS

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Universitäts-Sternwarte München
Fakultät für Physik der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
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The Micado Instrument Control Software

The MICADO control software is responsible for the coordination of all actions necessary for an observation with the MICADO instrument; in addition, the preparation of observations is regarded as part of this software package, too. The overall layout of the control software is shown in the Figure. The control software can be roughly divided into the following components:

a) Observation Coordination System (OCS) This is the highest layer in the software, being responsible for the synchronization of all sub-systems during an observation and for interfacing all external actors (as the ELT or the AO). The implementation of the OCS will be based on a software framework delivered by ESO, using C++ for its business logic, Qt for graphical user interfaces, and Python for all scripting purposes.

b) Function Control System (FCS) This part of the software is responsible for the interaction with the various hardware devices in MICADO (motors, lamps, switches, and so on). It will be implemented in a two-layer fashion:
  • A lower layer will run on PLC systems, and will therefore be able to schedule tasks with a real-time guarantee. The implementation of this layer will be based mainly on the PLC languages as defined by the IEC 61131-3 standard. For some astronomical calculations (needed for the control of the MICADO tracking devices) an implementation of a C++ kernel-driver will be necessary, however.
  • A higher software layer will run on the instrument workstation and organize the interaction between the PLC code and the rest of the software system. Similar to the OCS, this part of the FCS will be based on the ESO software framework, and again will use C++, Qt, and Python.

    c) Observer Support Software (OSS) This part of software will be used in combination with ESO standard tools by any astronomer preparing an observation with MICADO. It aims at simplifying and optimizing instrument-specific tasks as the selection of suitable natural guide stars for the AO system and the definition of an offset/dither pattern, and it shall provide a visual representation of the preparation settings along with both graphical and scripting interfaces. Currently a Python/C++-based prototype is being developed as a stand-alone application (see for more details). Its functionality will later be integrated as a plugin into ESO's p2 web application, implementing the MICADO-specific tasks as independent web services.

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    		 MICADO Software architecture. Main components and their dependencies in the context of the ELT control system are shown - those under USM OPINAS/USM responsibility are coloured magenta.

    ( click on image for large version)


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    • Letzte Änderung: 20. Januar 2020 durch U. Hopp (hopp .at. usm.lmu.de), webmaster: (webmaster .at. usm.lmu.de)
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