A proposed software standard on general-purpose controlling and operating systems for real unattended robotic observatory I: telescope and detector

摘要

Based on our experiences on developing software for Antarctica Survey Telescope (AST3), we propose a software standard of controlling and operating system for real unattended robotic observatories. Besides automaticity, this standard addresses special issues of high availability, fault-tolerance, power efficiency, etc., which are much less important for matured observatories but become crucial for real unattended observatories, e.g., Antarctica sites or space telescope. Our recommended standard defines sets of common instructions to operate all the facilities of an observatory. For each instruction, the standard specifies its function, how it responses when a hardware or software exception arises and informs users in detail. Then it specifies an application programming interface (API) so that user programs know how to call it to execute a certain operation. Finally, we propose feasible inter process communication protocols for the API implementation as well as managing the special redundant hardware. By calling the universal API users can easily develop their own software to control and operate an astronomical observatory robustly and fully automatically with minimum human intervention, even if their devices are highly customized.