Instrument control software for the Visible Broadband Imager using ATST common services framework and base

Abstract

The Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) Common Services Framework (CSF) and ATST Base provide the technical framework and building blocks for developing telescope and instrument control systems. The ATST Visible Broadband Imager (VBI) is a high priority instrument with science use cases requiring a control system capable of executing deterministic motion control tasks and synchronizing those tasks with other systems in the observatory. The VBI control system is the first designed and developed using the ATST CSF and Base components, and therefore provides insight into the strengths and weaknesses of using distributed control software in the instrument domain. In this paper we lay out the design of the VBI control system, examine how the underlying ATST CSF and Base components are utilized, and discuss where custom software is incorporated to meet real-time performance and synchronization requirements. We present our analysis of the system design against three of the VBI use cases.