Distributed Control Software for the Active Surface System of Tian-ma Radio Telescope

• Published in: Research in astronomy and astrophysics Vol. 23; no. 11; pp. 115024 - 115030
• Main Authors: Zhang, Dong, Zhao, Rong-Bing, Yan, Zhen, Shang-Guan, Wei-Hua, Ye, Qian, Shen, Zhi-Qiang, Liu, Qing-Hui, Wang, Jin-Qing, Fu, Li, Zhang, Chu-Yuan, Song, Dong-Fang, Liu, Si-Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing National Astromonical Observatories, CAS and IOP Publishing 01.11.2023; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: Active control; Actuators; Astronomical Instrumentation; Control systems; Data management; Event horizon; instrumentation: high angular resolution; Methods and Techniques; Middleware; Radio telescopes; Remote control; Software; techniques: high angular resolution; telescopes
• ISSN: 1674-4527; 2397-6209
• DOI: 10.1088/1674-4527/acfa58

Abstract The Tian-ma Radio Telescope (TMRT) applies an Active Surface System (ASFS), which corrects for large-scale deformations due to gravity and thermal on the primary reflector. The centralized and automated management of the ASFS using software has become a challenge, for which we have developed the TMRT Active Surface System Control Software (TASCS). This paper describes the design and implementation of TASCS for device control, status monitoring, human-computer interaction, and data management functionalities. TASCS adopts the open-source Tango Controls framework and distributes middleware technology to realize real-time automated adjustment of the primary reflector through remote centralized control of a large number of actuators. At present, it has been successfully deployed on the TMRT and has played an important role in Event Horizon Telescope observations.