Instrumentation Software - Overview

Presentation Contents Instrumentation Software Overview Subsystems, software Architecture Instrument Control Software Architecture, review of main features at the WS and LCU level. New features with in VLTSW release

Instruments Subsystems Detectors Instrument Functions Adaptive Optics Module Telescope Interferometer The main instruments subsystems are listed here: In blue are the systems which are normally part of the instrument, in black are the systems which are part of the VLT facility. Detectors: collecting the light and convert it in digital format. Instrument: Grouping all opto-mechanical devices setting the light path to detector heads according to the different instrument modes. AO module: System aimed to cancel aberrations introduced by the atmosphere in real time. Telescope: System which main task is to point to the right direction in the sky and keep the target stable with the best possible image quality. Interferometer: System which allows to combine the light from two or more telescopes on different configurations which can be used, among other things, to determine the shape of an object surface.

Instruments Subsystems Detectors Detector Control Software (DCS) Instrument Functions Instrument Control Software (ICS) Adaptive Optics Module Real Time Control Software (RTC) Telescope Telescope Control Software (TCS) Interferometer Interferometer Supervisor Software (ISS) The task of the instrumentation software is to coordinate all of them in order to take images from the sky at the right position and with the correct instrument configuration. Each of these systems has a dedicated control software . The task for the instrumentation software is to coordinate all of them in order to take images from the sky at the right position and with the correct instrument configuration.

Instruments Subsystems Detector Control Software (DCS) Main Tasks Take exposures for different read-out modes Image Transfer and Display Save images as FITS files Various Systems CCD Software (technical CCD) Fiera Software (Optical CCD) Irace Software (Infrared CCD) NGC Optical and NGC Infrared Software (VLTSW release 2009) Interface Command Interface (SETUP, START, WAIT, ABORT, END) Public OLDB Currently there are 5 different Detector Control Software. CCD software for the technical CCDs, Fiera and Irace for the first generation of scientific detectors and NGC as the detector control software for optical and infrared detectors. They all share the features like to take exposures for different read-out modes, image transfer and display and save images as FITS files. The interface is mainly the public OLDB and the commands. The main important ones are: SETUP, START, WAIT, ABORT and END.

Instruments Subsystems Instrument Control Software (ICS) Main Task Control and monitor the instrument functions (hardware) like motors, shutters and filter wheels, etc. Interfaces Command Interface (SETUP, STATUS, STOP, EXPSTRT, EXPEND) Public OLDB Please note the different between Instrumentation Software (INS) and Instrument Control Software (ICS). ICS just refers to the control of the instrument functions while INS refers to the entire application. The main task of the ICS is to control the various hardware functions of the instrument like motors, shutters and filter wheels. The interface is a public OLDB and a set of commands. Command EXPSTRT do all the actions related to the start of an exposure. Command EXPEND do all the actions related to the end of an exposure. Command STOP stop immediately all ongoing hardware movements. Command STATUS return the information related with the devices like for instance current position, if it is in simulation or normal mode, etc.

Instruments Subsystems Real Time Computer (RTC) Main Task Data acquisition, Reconstruction and Control in order to compensate for the atmospheric aberrations. Systems MACAO SPARTA (under development) Interfaces Command Interface (SETUP, EXPSTAT, EXPEND, ACQUIRE, OPENLP, CLOSELP, SUSPEND, RESUME) Public OLDB The Real Time Computer is the adaptive module whose main task is to compensate for the atmospheric aberrations. The interface is a public OLDB and a set of commands. ACQUIRE: Acquire the guide or the sky background. OPENLP: It opens the control loop CLOSELP: It closes the AO loop in one of the possible modes. It optimize the loop parameters and leave the AO compensation closed upon termination. SUSPEND: Suspend the AO loop and close the shutter RESUME: Resume the AO loop compensation reusing the last known parameters

Instruments Subsystems Telescope Control Software (TCS) Main Tasks Presetting, Tracking, Guiding, Active Optics Corrections Interfaces (TIF) Command Interface (SETUP, OFFSADG, SETINSD, OFFSGP, etc.) One TIF front-end process per telescope focus C/C++ Interface Data Query Library TCS FITS headers routines Public OLDB Others The TCS Simulation package Active Optics correct the shape of the primary mirror and the position of the secondary to remove optical aberrations like defocus and decentering coma. Command SETINSD: Set the parameters of the instrument like the instrument name, mode and the vignetting area of the instrument field. Command OFFSADG: Combined offset (stop the guiding, make the offset of the axis and resume the guiding) Command OFFSGP: offset in RA and DEC for the guide probe without stopping the guiding. This command produces a movement in the focal plane that will be compensated by an offset in the M2 tip-tilt stage which will be finally offloaded to the telescope axis.

Instruments Subsystems Interferometer Supervisor Software (ISS) Main Features Responsible for coordinating the whole VLTI, configuration of the array and acting as a high level interface toward the instruments. Interfaces Command Interface (SETUP, OFFSADG, SETINSD, OFFSGP, OFFSGUV, etc.) C/C++ Interface Data Query Library TCS FITS headers routines Public OLDB Others The TCS Simulation package Command OFFSGUV: Issue a UVW rotation offset for a single telescope by moving the guide reference.

Instrumentation Software Observation Software (OS) Main Tasks: Setup and coordination of various control systems. Perform and monitor the observations reporting any unexpected problem. Completion of the FITS images generated by the DCS with the information from all the subsystems. How are all these systems coordinated to get the astronomical images?

Instrumentation Software Software Architecture – Example This figure shows the software architecture of a simple instrument. This instrument software has 1 ICS dealing with all hardware functions, 1 NGC IR DCS for controlling a scientific detector,1 DCS for the control a technical CCD and TCS Simulation is running in the same machine for testing the interface with the instrument. OS receives the sequence of observations from the Broker for Observation Block (BOB) tool and forward the instructions to the subsystems. A typical observation is a sequence of commands SETUP, START and WAIT.

Instruments Subsystems All instrument subsystem control software implement the SETUP command to configure one or several parameters using a list of pairs <keyword> <value>. Additionally reference setup files can be used to reduce the number of parameters to be defined. SETUP –file <reference file> -function <key1> <val> <key2> <val> ... <keyN> <val> You don’t need to setup all parameters every time, they are kept in memory, subsystems only change parameters given as arguments, the rest remain untouched. References files are important after the process startup or when changing from one mode to another.

Instruments Subsystems All instrument subsystems software use hierarchical keywords to control their behaviour and to report their status. Format: <Cat> <Sub> [Sub] <Par> E.g. INS FILT NAME TEL TARG ALPHA, TEL TARG DELTA DET WIN UIT Keywords are defined in dictionaries that specify the data interface of the instrument data products. They should conform to the ESO official data interface specification: Data Interface Control Document (GEN-SPE-ESO-19400-0974) The data interface control document indicates that instrument dictionaries need to be submitted for approval to DICB (Data Interface Control Board). Dictionaries should be approved before instruments are commissioned in Paranal.

Instrumentation Software INS Framework It provides a skeleton of the instrumentation software that can be customized by an instrument developer. The customization is done through configuration keywords. Basic Principle of INS Framework: Generic severs whose behaviour is defined in configuration files. INS Framework provides an excellent starting point for developers who normally have to code only what is specific for the instruments. The INS Framework is very flexible but this has a cost Complexity INS Framework: It provides the skeleton of the instrumentation software that can be customized by an instrument developer. The customization is done through configuration keywords. This is the basic principable of the INS framework. Generic severs whose behavior is defined with a set of keywords. The goal although in reality there is still many parts that need to be coded especially for the templates. Nevertheless INS Framework provides an excellent starting point for developers who normally have to code only what is specific for the instruments. This is a key point for the software maintenance at Paranal.

Instrumentation Software INS Framework - Common Software Base OS Stub Software (boss) Base ICS Software (icb) Build and Installation Utility (pkgin) Image Real Time Display (rtd) Start-up/Shutdown Tool (stoo) Configuration Tool (ctoo) FITS Handling (oslx/slx) VLT Template Library (tpl) VLTI Template Library (isstcl) The INS framework is a set of tools including: Boss: generic implementation of the observation software ccb: Generic implementation of the ICS rtd: Implementing the image real time display. stoo: The startup tool for the instrument software ctoo: Configuration tool tpl: Template library simplifying the implementation of templates. isstpl: The same but for the VLTI instruments. clip: New package for online image processing.

Instrumentation Software INS Framework – Template Instrument Facility that can be used as a template to build an instrument control software. Its main purpose is twofold It is aimed to help developers by providing pre-defined configurations and code examples for the complete instrument software. It is used at ESO to validate the instrumentation common software. Additionally the INS Framework includes the Template Instrument which is facility that can be used as a template to build an instrument control software. It has two main purpose: It is aimed to help developers by providing pre-defined configurations and code examples for the complete instrument software. We will use the template instrument during our lab exercise so who are not familiar with it could learn how to use it. But this is not the only purpose. We use it to validate the INS common software for every new VLTSW release.

Instrumentation Software Software Packages This figure shows an overview of the different packages of the instrumentation software including the external subsystems at the top and, the common software in the middle and the main subsystem at the bottom: OS, ICS, DCS, RTC, MS and OSS. MS: It covers the all instrument configuration, troubleshooting and Technical Templates. OSS: Consists of all the tools to support the users in the preparation of the observations.

Instrumentation Software Templates Observations are structured in blocks OBD IP TSF OB SEQ BOB Templates is the interface between the users and the instrumentation software. Instrument Templates are made of two parts: Template Signature File (TSF) which is the definition of all parameters that can be used within the template and the sequencer script which implement the behavior of the observation including the execution of one or more exposures. The instrument Package (IP) contains all the TSF needed by the Astronomers to create observation blocks for a particular instrument. The IP is used by the Phase 2 Proposal Preparation Tool to produce and manage the observations. OBD is the PAF file used to describe an OB Template Signature File (TSF) defines all parameters that can be used within the template. Sequencer Script implement the behavior of the observation including the execution of one or more exposures.

Instrumentation Software Software Architecture – Example This figure shows the software architecture as defined for a second generation instrument. Here it is possible to see the data flow starting with the observations defined by the astronomers which are executed by BOB sending the exposure sequence to the OS which forwards all the setting to the different subsystems.

Instrument Control Software - ICS Software Architecture ICS SW is split in two : WS and LCU part Two levels of simulation LCU simulation Hardware simulation The ICS SW is split in two: WS and LCU part The control over the whole hardware is disabled when the LCU is simulated. When the hw is simulated the simulation is at the LCU level and only for some parts of the hardware. When no simulation full hardware is enabled.

Instrument Control Software - ICS WS Part ICS WS front-end Process Controls the global status of the ICS sw. Forwards the setup commands to the LCU front-end processes. Handles and coordinates the replies from the LCUs front-end processes. Retrieves the status of all devices. ICS WS Simulation Process Simulates the LCU behaviour when sw is in LCU simulation. Graphical Interface Standalone engineering user interface. Automatically generated from the instrument configuration. Customizable for special needs.

Instrument Control Software - ICS WS Part – Additional Features Scanning: Facility to copy database attributes across different environments. Example: INS.SCAN.PERIOD 5 INS.SCAN1.DBFROM "<alias>TCS:coord.ra2000" INS.SCAN1.DBTO "@lxxics1<alias>DROT.ra" INS.SCAN2.DBFROM "<alias>TCS:coord.dec2000" INS.SCAN2.DBTO "@lxxics1<alias>DROT.dec" TCS LCU AO ICS LCU TCS WS INS WS 250ms (*) (*): worse case for the CCS scanning. CCS Scanning Database write TCS part INS part

Instrument Control Software - ICS WS Part – Additional Features Assemblies Simplify the interface with high level software Perform complex setups including support for sequential order. Example: from VISIR instrument INS.ASSEMBLY5 "INS.SOURCE"; # Assembly FITS name INS.ASSEMBLY5.HEADER "T" INS.ASSEMBLY5.KEY1 "SKY" INS.ASSEMBLY5.VAL1 "INS.TABL1.POS 120, INS.TABL2.POS 75" INS.ASSEMBLY5.KEY2 "EXTENDED" INS.ASSEMBLY5.VAL2 "INS.TABL1.POS 0 INS.TABL3.POS 22 INS.TABL2.POS 5" INS.ASSEMBLY5.KEY3 "POINT" INS.ASSEMBLY5.VAL3 "INS.TABL1.POS 116.0 INS.TABL3.POS 15.0 INS.TABL2.POS 4.15" In this example the data arrives to the IWS with the normal CCS scanning and the ICS process copy it every five seconds to the LCU. The first assembly setup is done in two steps to avoid collisions.

Instrument Control Software - ICS WS Part – Additional Features Statistics for Sensors: ICS computes statistics on samples collected during an exposure . This works in connection with the CCS service (history tables) to record data which is used by ICS to compute the statistics. keyword: INS.SENSORi.STATi <stat> Example: INS.SENSOR5.STAT3 "MEAN RMS" ICS computes statistics on samples collected during an exposure. This works in connection with the CCS service to record data in history tables.

Instrument Control Software - ICS LCU Part LCU front-end Process (ic0lcuServer) LCU Device Manager (ic0devServer) What is a standard device? LCU Special Device Manager A Standard Device is a function which is already implemented within the ICS sw so there is no need to implement the code to control it. Instruments using standard devices just need to customize them using of configuration keywords. Standard devices are only possible because of the hardware standardization.

Instrument Control Software - ICS LCU Part – Standard Devices Nb Device Type Interface ICB Devices 2 Digital Control Digital I/O Board Lamps and Shutters 12 Motor Motion Control ADC, Derotator, Filter Wheel, Slit Wheel, Optical function with continuous position, etc. 9 Sensor Serial Port ESO cabinet cooling controller, OMEGA temperature controller, Humidity sensor, Ester DC24 temperature controller, etc. 1 Digial sensors Other TIM board TIM board timer 2 devices for digital control: especially designed for lamps and shutters. 12 devices for motorized functions working with two motion control interface: Maccon and CAN RMC. 9 ICS Sensors devices allows the access to devices connected to a serial port implementing the protocols for each supported device. 1 Digital sensor allowing to access digital input signals connected to the VLT standard digital I/O board. 1 timer device to program a TIM board timer to supply an external periodic signal. Total 25

Instrument Control Software - ICS LCU Part - Additional Features Automatic Sensor State Keyword: INS.CON.ONLINE Motor Initialization Order Keyword: INS.<dev>.INIALONE Motor SW initialization Function Keywords: *.INISWFCT Pre and Post-Initialization and Movement Functions Keywords: *.PREINIFCT, *.POSTINIFCT, *.PREFCT, *.POSFCT Two-Step Movements Keyword: INS.<dev>.TWOSTEP Sensors can be placed automatically in state ONLINE after an LCU reboots. This is quite useful for instruments where it is needed to monitor the temperature of the detector all the time. Some instruments might to need to initialize motors in a specific order. If this keyword is not present all devices are initialized in parallel. If each device contains that keyword, they are initialized one by one following the order as they appear in the configuration. Some devices may need to perform special actions during the initialization or immediately before and after moving the motor. You can register the C functions that will be executed for those events. Motors can be configured to move with normal and two step motions although two step motions parameters shall be specified in the motor configuration (MCM).

Instrumentation Software New Features in VLT2009 NGC INS common software is being updated to support NGC CLIP New standard package for online image processing. Two new standard devices (ICS sensors) Lakeshore (supports models 218,332 and 340) Yokogawa (supports DX100/DX200 Series DAQ station) CAN RMC support You can try out some of these new features during the lab exercise. We are currently working in the integration and support of NGC in the INS Framework. NGC infrared is already supported and you will use it during the lab exercise. Common Library for Image Processing (CLIP) will be officially included in the next release. The ICS will include the support for two new sensors Support for CAN RMC