Primary mirror control for large segmented telescopes: combining high performance with robustness

Gert Witvoet; Niek Doelman; Remco den Breeje

doi:10.1117/12.2232054

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8 August 2016 Primary mirror control for large segmented telescopes: combining high performance with robustness

Gert Witvoet, Niek Doelman, Remco den Breeje

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Proceedings Volume 9906, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VI; 990611 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232054
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

Future large telescopes, such as E-ELT and TMT, will need feedback control of the thousands of actuators underneath their segmented primary mirrors (M1). Differences in actuator dynamics and spatially and temporally changing disturbances make it extremely difficult to formulate classical controllers which are both sufficiently robust and highly performing. Therefore, TNO has developed and tested a control approach, in which the actual system response is quickly measured, disturbances are continuously estimated and the controller is adapted in real-time. The algorithm is tested on an actual M1-relevant setup, in which it converges to a sub-nm optimum within a few minutes, keeps track of changing disturbances and shows its reliability over multiple days.

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Gert Witvoet, Niek Doelman, and Remco den Breeje "Primary mirror control for large segmented telescopes: combining high performance with robustness", Proc. SPIE 9906, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VI, 990611 (8 August 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232054

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