Field target allocation and routing algorithms for Starbugs

Goodwin, Michael; Lorente, Nuria P. F.; Satorre, Christophe; Hong, Sungwook E.; Kuêhn, K.; Lawrence, Jon

doi:10.1117/12.2055047

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…6 Finally, TAIPAN, a fiberbased multiobject spectrograph, presents several distinct motion planning algorithm for its positioners. 7 Among them, like in MIRADAS, one depends on a graph search technique.…”

Section: Offline Operationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roadmap search based motion planning for MIRADAS probe arms

Sabater

Torres

Garzón

et al. 2018

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

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Abstract. MIRADAS is a near-infrared multiobject echelle spectrograph operating at spectral resolution R ¼ 20;000 over the 1 to 2.5 μm bandpass for Gran Telescopio Canarias. It possesses a multiplexing system with 12 cryogenic robotic probe arms, each capable of independently selecting a user-defined target in the instrument field of view. The arms are distributed around a circular bench, becoming a very packed workspace when all of them are in simultaneous operation. Therefore, their motions have to be carefully coordinated. We propose here a motion planning method for the MIRADAS probe arms. Our offline algorithm relies on roadmaps comprising alternative paths, which are discretized in a state-time space. The determination of collision-free trajectories in such space is achieved by means of a graph-search technique. The approach considers the constraints imposed by the particular architecture of the probe arms as well as the limitations of the commercial off-the-shelf motor controllers used in the mechanical design. We test our solution with real science targets and a typical MIRADAS scenario presenting some instances of the two identified collision conflicts that can arise between any pair of probe arms. Experiments show the method is versatile enough to compute trajectories fulfilling the requirements.

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Section: Offline Operationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roadmap search based motion planning for MIRADAS probe arms

Sabater

Torres

Garzón

et al. 2018

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

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“…The same field is restructured into 157 objects on which MRC is deployed to compare the efficiency. The image is taken from [6]. Right: Target distribution with same number of targets which is used to characterize the efficiency of MRC method.…”

Section: Field Revisit Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple rooks of chess: a generic integral field unit deployment technique

Chattopadhyay

Ramaprakash

Khodade

et al. 2018

Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation III

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A new field re-configuration technique, Multiple Rooks of Chess, for multiple deployable Integral Field Spectrographs has been developed. The method involves a mechanical geometry as well as an optimized deployment algorithm. The geometry is found to be simple for mechanical implementation. The algorithm initially assigns the IFUs to the target objects and then devises the movement sequence based on the current and the desired IFU positions. The reconfiguration time using the suitable actuators which runs at 20 cm/s is found to be a maximum of 25 seconds for the circular DOTIFS focal plane (180 mm diameter). It is similar to some of the fastest schemes currently available. The Geometry Algorithm Combination (GAC) has been tested on several million mock target configurations with object-to-IFU (τ ) ratio varying from 0.25 to 16. The configuration had both contiguous and sparse distribution of targets. The MRC method is found to be extremely efficient in target acquisition in terms of field revisit and deployment time without any collision or entanglement of the fiber bundles. The efficiency of the technique does not get affected by the increase of number density of target objects. For field with τ >1 prioritization of target objects is an optional feature and not necessary. The GAC can be modified for an instrument with higher or lower number of IFUs and different field size without any significant change in the flow. The technique is compared with other available methods based on sky coverage, flexibility and overhead time. The proposed geometry and algorithm combination is found to have advantage in all of the aspects.

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“…The 50-100 hexabundles plus sky fibres on Hector will be positioned on a glass field plate by robots called starbugs [28,29,30,31,32] . The Hector starbugs will be a progression of the technology developed to produce the 180 starbugs for the Taipan multi-object spectroscopic galaxy survey [16] .…”

Section: Positioner: Starbugsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hector: a new massively multiplexed IFU instrument for the Anglo-Australian Telescope

et al. 2016

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Hector [1,2,3] will be the new massively-multiplexed integral field spectroscopy (IFS) instrument for the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) in Australia and the next main dark-time instrument for the observatory. Based on the success of the SAMI instrument, which is undertaking a 3400-galaxy survey, the integral field unit (IFU) imaging fibre bundle (hexabundle) technology under-pinning SAMI is being improved to a new innovative design for Hector. The distribution of hexabundle angular sizes is matched to the galaxy survey properties in order to image 90% of galaxies out to 2 effective radii. 50-100 of these IFU imaging bundles will be positioned by 'starbug' robots across a new 3-degree field corrector top end to be purpose-built for the AAT. Many thousand fibres will then be fed into new replicable spectrographs. Fundamentally new science will be achieved compared to existing instruments due to Hector's wider field of view (3 degrees), high positioning efficiency using starbugs, higher spectroscopic resolution (R=3000-5500 from 3727-7761Å, with a possible redder extension later) and large IFUs (up to 30 arcsec diameter with 61-217 fibre cores). A 100,000 galaxy IFS survey with Hector will decrypt how the accretion and merger history and large-scale environment made every galaxy different in its morphology and star formation history. The high resolution, particularly in the blue, will make Hector the only instrument to be able to measure higher-order kinematics for galaxies down to much lower velocity dispersion than in current large IFS galaxy surveys, opening up a wealth of new nearby galaxy science.The overarching science goal is to understand the physical basis for the diversity of galaxy properties in the local Universe. Substantial steps forward have been possible with smaller surveys such as SAMI, which have sufficient sample sizes to study the properties of galaxies as a function of their mass and local environment, but the diversity of galaxies is driven by more than just these two parameters. The accretion and/or merger history of a galaxy is fundamental to its morphology and star formation history, but to date it has been hard or impossible to capture the diversity of accretion histories observationally. The broader large-scale environment is also known to be important in determining a galaxy's structure via tidal torques. Only with Hector targeting 100,000 galaxies can we hope to probe the detailed physics of galaxy formation in these two extra dimensions of accretion history and large-scale environment. Specifically, the integral field data from Hector can provide specific angular momentum, higher order velocity moments, mis-alignments between gas and stars as well as measure dynamical disturbance. All of these tracers provide a view into accretion and merger history, which when combined with the unprecedented sample size of Hector will allow us to connect a galaxy's specific history to its current state. By connecting these properties to the network of large-scale structure we will be able to show h...

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Field target allocation and routing algorithms for Starbugs

Cited by 10 publications

References 24 publications

Roadmap search based motion planning for MIRADAS probe arms

Roadmap search based motion planning for MIRADAS probe arms

Multiple rooks of chess: a generic integral field unit deployment technique

Hector: a new massively multiplexed IFU instrument for the Anglo-Australian Telescope

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