Evolution of the top level control software of astronomical instruments at ESO

Abstract The amount of software in automated production systems, including its development effort, is continuously increasing to currently up to 35-50% of the development personnel. Consequently, success factors for achieving modularity and complexity management of control software are of high economic interest. Scientific solutions are manifold but often not implemented in industry. This paper introduces the study QoaPS SWE (Quality of automated Production Systems’ Software Engineering) providing insights into 61 machine and plant manufacturing companies to give quantitative and qualitative results to five essential research questions on success factors in the design of field-level control code. Compared to preceding surveys, QoaPS SWE achieves statistically significant results for software maturity (MMOD+), complexity, and model-based software engineering and provides detailed insights into causes and consequences for single criteria, thus clearly identifying obstacles to be addressed in future research and with industrial countermeasures. Especially staff qualification and organizational issues are identified as obstacles to applying the object-oriented programming paradigm for control software in machine and plant manufacturing. Validity is ensured by analyzing the statistical significance of the results in addition to comparisons with earlier surveys and interviews as well as the comparison with already existing and accepted maturity levels. The provided qualitative and quantitative results will allow the benchmarking of companies’ maturity and the derivation of concrete recommendations for companies depending on their MMOD+ value and the evaluated characteristics.

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Generic control software connecting astronomical instruments to the reflective memory data recording system of VLTI - bossvlti

10.1117/12.2054727 ◽

2014 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

E. Pozna ◽

A. Ramirez ◽

A. Mérand ◽

A. Mueller ◽

R. Abuter ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Recording System ◽

Data Recording ◽

Control Software ◽

Astronomical Instruments

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MUSSOL: A Micro-Uas to Survey Ship Cargo hOLds

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13173419 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (17) ◽

pp. 3419

Author(s):

Francisco Bonnin-Pascual ◽

Emilio Garcia-Fidalgo ◽

Joan P. Company-Corcoles ◽

Alberto Ortiz

Keyword(s):

Visual Inspection ◽

Obstacle Detection ◽

Level Control ◽

Control Software ◽

Full System ◽

Aerial Robots ◽

Collision Prevention ◽

Cost Efficient ◽

Inspection Tasks ◽

High Level

Because of their high maneuverability and fast deployment times, aerial robots have recently gained popularity for automating inspection tasks. In this paper, we address the visual inspection of vessel cargo holds, aiming at safer, cost-efficient and more intensive visual inspections of ships by means of a multirotor-type platform. To this end, the vehicle is equipped with a sensor suite able to supply the surveyor with imagery from relevant areas, while the control software is supporting the operator during flight with enhanced functionalities and reliable autonomy. All this has been accomplished in the context of the supervised autonomy (SA) paradigm, by means of extensive use of behaviour-based high-level control (including obstacle detection and collision prevention), all specifically devised for visual inspection. The full system has been evaluated both in laboratory and in real environments, on-board two different vessels. Results show the vehicle effective for the referred application, in particular due to the inspection-oriented capabilities it has been fitted with.

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Robotic and Non-Robotic Control of Astrophysical Instruments

Advances in Astronomy ◽

10.1155/2010/620424 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 2010 ◽

pp. 1-6 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gerd Küveler ◽

Van Dung Dao ◽

Axel Zuber ◽

Renzo Ramelli

Keyword(s):

Solar Observatory ◽

Robotic Control ◽

Script Language ◽

Control Software ◽

Control Programs ◽

Astronomical Instruments ◽

Routine Tasks ◽

The Individual ◽

Automated Processes ◽

Complex Measuring

We present a system of device control programs, developed for the solar observatory at Locarno/Switzerland (IRSOL). Because these programs are implemented as servers—clearly separated from the higher levels—scientific instruments, for example, telescopes, can be operated both in a user-controlled mode (GUI,telnet) and in a fully automated mode by use of a script. Astronomical instruments such as telescopes or spectrographs will be responded to by ASCII command strings, which are the same for all clients. In case a device control software does not support multiclient operation or in case it is used together with other devices in a complex measuring procedure, it is worthwhile implementing an intermediate layer that relieves the individual device control servers of routine tasks and provides for a safer operational sequence. In addition, the system may make use of an easy-to-learn script language specialised for controlling fully automated processes.

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Low-level control software for the WEAVE spectrograph

Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy V ◽

10.1117/12.2311469 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Bernardo Salasnich ◽

Carlos Martín Perez ◽

José Miguel Delgado Hernández ◽

Sergio Picó ◽

Diego Cano Infantes ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Level Control ◽

Control Software ◽

Low Level

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Control Software Framework ECSF for Experiment Based on CORBA and Agent

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.608-609.651 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 608-609 ◽

pp. 651-655

Author(s):

Zhong Tang ◽

Yue Xie

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

System Level ◽

Software Framework ◽

Centralized Control ◽

Level Control ◽

Control Software ◽

Agent Based ◽

Experiment Control ◽

Confinement Fusion ◽

Scale Experiment

The control system for Inertia Confinement Fusion (ICF) experiment facility is based on a scalable software framework and can implement centralized control of thousands of devices and roboticized experiment processes. Experiment Control Software Framework (ECSF) is the control software framework specially for large-scale experiment facility, colligating advantages of CORBA and Agent. By the reuse at the system level, control software can be fleetly constructed. Software device Agent based on OOD is the base of framework. Centralized manager and common module implement events, alerts, reservations, logging, data archive, flow and arithmetic management. Several connection managements are also provided for the member of the framework. Taking patch energy subsystem as an example, the instantiation of the framework is introduced to validate the feasibility and validity of ECSF.

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