1. A Heterogeneous Telescope Network Alasdair Allan Tim Naylor Eric Saunders University of Exeter Iain Steele Chris Mottram Liverpool John Moores University Tim Jenness Frossie Economou Brad Cavanagh Andy Adamson Joint Astronomy Centre, Hawaii

2. NAM Birmingham 2005 1 The eSTAR concept Three fundamental ideas behind the project which makes it unique: Treat telescopes and databases in a similar manner, both being made available on the Observational Grid The main user of the Grid and the Virtual Observatories should not be humans, but autonomous intelligent software agents These software agents are reactive, examining the results of observations, and then scheduling follow up observations based on their analysis of the existing data

3. NAM Birmingham 2005 2 What is an agent anyway? An agent is “just software” not magic Loosely, an agent is a computational entity which: Acts on behalf of another entity in an autonomous fashion Performs its actions with some level of proactivity and/or responsiveness Exhibits some level of the key attributes of learning, co- operation and mobility

4. NAM Birmingham 2005 3 How far we’ve come… First talked about eSTAR at NAM in 2002, since then… Established small prototype network using “off the shelf” telescopes Deployed the system onto UKIRT in Hawaii for GRB follow up Research into grid markets and agent technologies Research into Adaptive Dataset Planning (ADP)

5. NAM Birmingham 2005 4 eSTAR and UKIRT All aspects of an observation programme at the JAC are either software readable or software controllable To the agent its irrelevant that’s there is a human in the loop Agents now being deployed to carry out GRB follow-up © Nik Szymanek

6. NAM Birmingham 2005 5 eSTAR and ADP Traditional variable star observing is strongly time constrained Aliasing problems dominate, inefficient and expensive Adaptive dataset planning is about, Finding the ideal observing pattern for a given period range… …and if we have an existing dataset, deciding when we should best observe

7. NAM Birmingham 2005 6 The short term plan… We have an exciting time ahead: Deploy eSTAR onto Robonet-1.0 to allow it to carry out observations using adaptive dataset planning and do micro-lensing work this summer [MAY] Finish work on the WFCAM/eSTAR Transient Object Detection Agent in collaboration with the JAC [JULY]

8. NAM Birmingham 2005 7 eSTAR and Robonet-1.0 Searching for extra-Solar planets using gravitational microlensing in the galactic bulge Real time GRB follow-up using the same agent software as UKIRT Consortium “open” time, a testbed for our adaptive dataset planning work

9. NAM Birmingham 2005 8 The eSTAR network © Nik Szymanek UKIRT @ JAC User Agents The Grid Embedded Agent Robonet-1.0 Embedded Agent OGLE Alert Alert Agent GCN Alert Alert Agent Alert Agent WFCAM The VO

10. NAM Birmingham 2005 9 In the longer term… Adding more telescopes, means the network becomes heterogeneous. Does that mean more complexity? What about the existing proprietary networks? Need to establish interoperability between the existing networks. Standards based, using RTML (and VOEvent for notification?)

11. NAM Birmingham 2005 10 The eSTAR meta-network User Agents The Grid Broker Service Proprietary Telescope Network Alerts Alert Agent

12. NAM Birmingham 2005 11 A Grid Market User Agents The Grid Grid Market Broker Service Proprietary Telescope Network Broker Service Proprietary Telescope Network The Virtual Observatory Broker Service

13. NAM Birmingham 2005 12 Other telescope networks eSTAR JAC Hawaii ( www.jach.hawaii.edu )www.jach.hawaii.edu Robonet-1.0 ( www.astro.livjm.ac.uk/RoboNet/ )www.astro.livjm.ac.uk/RoboNet/ Collaborators RAPTOR ( www.raptor.lanl.gov )www.raptor.lanl.gov SGM & SMARTS ( aaaprod.gsfc.nasa.gov/SGM/ )aaaprod.gsfc.nasa.gov/SGM/ MONET ( www.uni-sw.gwdg.de/~hessman/MONET/ )www.uni-sw.gwdg.de/~hessman/MONET/ SuperWASP ( www.superwasp.org )www.superwasp.org Others REX ( star-www.st-and.ac.uk/~kdh1/rex/rex.html )star-www.st-and.ac.uk/~kdh1/rex/rex.html ASTRA ( citadel.edu/physics/astra/ )citadel.edu/physics/astra/ STELLA ( www.aip.de/stella/ )www.aip.de/stella/

14. NAM Birmingham 2005 13 Other agent based projects The Thinking Telescope System (Los Alamos) www.thinkingtelescopes.lanl.gov www.thinkingtelescopes.lanl.gov

15. NAM Birmingham 2005 14 The HTN Workshop July 18 -21 2005 Aims Interoperability between robotic telescope networks Interoperability with the Virtual Observatory (VO) for event notification Establishment of an e-market for the exchange of telescope time See htn-workshop2005.ex.ac.ukhtn-workshop2005.ex.ac.uk Science Goal Monitor

16. NAM Birmingham 2005 15 Summary One way to hide differences is by adding brokering layers to a system, this works just as well for the VO as it does for the telescope networks I’ve described. The addition of a Grid Market allows heterogeneous proprietary resources to be bartered For more information about the eSTAR Project see our website www.estar.org.ukwww.estar.org.uk For more information about the upcoming HTN Workshop in Exeter this July see the conference website htn-workshop2005.ex.ac.ukhtn-workshop2005.ex.ac.uk