Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Peregrine McGehee <[email protected]> · Tue, 30 Sep 1997 07:49:45 -1000

Aloha,
	Recently I have begun a survey of current trends in the design
of telescope control systems within the Mauna Kea community. My
primary concern has been with the actual telescope control software (that is -
machine rather than detector control).

	It could be interesting to compare architectures across the 
experimental physics (and astronomy) controls community.
	
	The current survey results can be found at:
http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/~mcgehee/survey/index.html

	A copy of the survey questions follow - some of the phrasing
is telescope-specific.

Peregrine

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I. Context 
     What are the principal components (including a TCS) of your
facility-wide software and control system? 

II. Interfaces 
     What are the software interfaces between the TCS and the other 
principal components? 

III. User Interfaces 
     Does the TCS provide a direct interface to the operator? If so, how? 

IV. Data Stores 
     Does the TCS provide access to any data stores such as
configuration and object catalogs? If so, how? 

V. Sequencing 
     Does the TCS provide for command sequencing at a high-level? 

VI. Command Support 
     How does your system support completion of system demands such as
slewing to a new target? Do these commands act on a collection of
virtual telescopes? If so, what virtual telescopes are defined? 

VII. Astrometrics 
     Under what environment do your astrometric calculations run? 

VIII. Pointing Models 
     How are your pointing models (especially for the mount)
implemented? Under what environment do they run? 

IX. Subsystem Control 
     Under what environment do your hardware-specific subsystems 
(like the mount controller) run? 

X. Resources 
     What are the resources (in FTEs) allocated for maintenance and
upgrade of the software and control systems associated with control of
the telescope?

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System