DKIST visible tunable filter control software: connecting the DKIST framework to OPC UA

Abstract

The Visible Tunable Filter (VTF) is a narrowband tunable filter system for imaging spectroscopy and spectropolarimetry based on large-format Fabry Perot interferometers that is currently built by the Kiepenheuer Institut fuer Sonnenphysik for the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST). The control software must handle around 30 motorised drives, 3 etalons, a polarizing modulator, a helium neon laser for system calibration, temperature controllers and a multitude of sensors. The VTF is foreseen as one of the DKISTs first-light instruments and should become operational in 2019. In the design of the control software we strongly separate between the high-level part interfacing to the DKIST common services framework (CSF) and the low-level control system software which guarantees real-time performance and synchronization to precision time protocol (PTP) based observatory time. For the latter we chose a programmable logic controller (PLC) from Beckhoff Automation GmbH which supports a wide set of input and output devices as well as distributed clocks for synchronizing signals down to the sub-microsecond level. In this paper we present the design of the required control system software as well as our work on extending the DKIST CSF to use the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) standard which provides a cross-platform communication standard for process control and automation as an interface between the high-level software and the real-time control system.