Published September 13, 2012 | Version Published
Book Section - Chapter Open

The Robo-AO software: fully autonomous operation of a laser guide star adaptive optics and science system

Abstract

Robo-AO is the first astronomical laser guide star adaptive optics (AO) system designed to operate completely independent of human supervision. A single computer commands the AO system, the laser guide star, visible and near-infrared science cameras (which double as tip-tip sensors), the telescope, and other instrument functions. Autonomous startup and shutdown sequences as well as concatenated visible observations were demonstrated in late 2011. The fully robotic software is currently operating during a month long demonstration of Robo-AO at the Palomar Observatory 60-inch telescope.

Additional Information

© 2012 SPIE. The Robo-AO project is a collaboration between Caltech Optical Observatories and the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics. It is partially funded by the National Science Foundation under grants AST-0906060 and AST-0960343, the Office of Naval Research under grant N00014-11-1-0903, a grant from the Mt. Cuba Foundation, and by a gift from Samuel Oschin. We are grateful for the continued support of the Palomar Observatory staff for their ongoing support of Robo-AO on the 60-inch telescope, particularly S. Kunsman, M. Doyle, J. Henning, R. Walters, G. Van Idsinga, B. Baker, K. Dunscombe and D. Roderick.

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
36578
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20130125-075005143

Funding

NSF
AST-0906060
NSF
AST-0960343
Office of Naval Research (ONR)
N00014-11-1-0903
Mt. Cuba Foundation

Dates

Created
2013-01-25
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-09
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Series Name
Proceedings of SPIE
Series Volume or Issue Number
8447