Dr. James Gilbert Profile

Dr. James Gilbert

Lead Engineer

SPIE Involvement:

Author

Area of Expertise:

instrumentation , electronics , positioning , robotics , mechatronics , project engineering

Websites:

Company Website

Publications (42)

SPIE Journal Paper | 24 December 2022

Pyxel 1.0: an open source Python framework for detector and end-to-end instrument simulation

Matej Arko, Thibaut Prod’homme, Frederic Lemmel, Benoit Serra, Elizabeth George, Bradley Kelman, Thibault Pichon, Enrico Biancalani, James Gilbert

JATIS, Vol. 8, Issue 04, 048002, (December 2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.10.1117/1.JATIS.8.4.048002

KEYWORDS: Device simulation, Data modeling, Equipment, Calibration, Capacitance, Instrument modeling, Diodes, Mathematical optimization, Sensor calibration, Detector development

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Proceedings Article | 29 August 2022 Poster + Paper

Design and manufacture of the carrier and flex cable for the Leonardo 1K

A. Vaccarella, N. Herrald, R. Sharp, J. Gilbert, M. Ellis, E. Zemaityte, M. Hicks

Proceedings Volume 12191, 121912D (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629916

KEYWORDS: Sensors, Interfaces, Thermal modeling, Tolerancing, Manufacturing, Temperature metrology, Design for manufacturability, Finite element methods, Signal detection, Aluminum

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Proceedings Article | 29 August 2022 Poster + Paper

Vacuum adhesion of Starbug fibre optic positioning robots in high-altitude ground-based astronomy instrumentation

Ellie O'Brien, Jon Lawrence, Celestina Lacombe, Michael Thomakos, Michael Goodwin, James Gilbert, Slavko Mali, Rolf Muller, Nirmala Kunwar, Jahanzeb Zahoor, Lew Waller, Tony Farrell

Proceedings Volume 12182, 1218237 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629158

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Green fluorescent protein, Observatories, Robots, Fiber optics, Ferroelectric materials, Astronomy, Stellar astronomy, Liquid crystal on silicon, Glasses

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Starbugs are self-motile fibre optic positioning robots developed by AAO-MQ. MANIFEST (MANy Instrument FibrE SysTem) is a facility class Instrument which will operate up to 900 Starbugs on the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). The FOBOS (Fibre-Optic Broadband Optical Spectrograph) Fibre Positioner is a facility class Instrument which will operate up to 1800 Starbugs on the Keck Telescope. Starbugs deliver an optical payload to the location of an astronomical object on the telescope focal plane. The Starbugs are made from a pair of concentric Piezoceramic Tubes (PZT), and a high-voltage waveform is applied to the PZT to create an actuation. Staging of the waveform creates successive microsteps, on the order of 3-20 μm each, at a driven frequency of 100Hz. The Starbugs are adhered to the Glass Field Plate (GFP) using an ancillary vacuum system, which must provide sufficient adhesion force to maintain the Starbug GFP position in the high-altitude environmental conditions at Mauna Kea (MKO) and Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) sites. The minimum vacuum adhesion requirements to achieve Starbug GFP position were used to specify the vacuum pump flow rate and operational head pressure. The vacuum adhesion requirements were experimentally obtained using the Starbug Test Stand, located in Sydney, Australia. The Starbugs Test Stand vacuum adhesion requirements were parametised for dry air mass flow rate and head pressure, and then corrected for the 95th percentile environmental conditions at MKO and LCO. The vacuum system numerical model was verified by the TAIPAN instrument. When corrected for ambient atmospheric conditions at the UK Schmidt Telescope (Siding Spring Observatory, Australia), the numerical model could predict the steady state vacuum pump speed with 1.29% variation from the measured vacuum pump speed recorded by the TAIPAN Instrument control software. This capability of the numerical model will be used for real-time condition monitoring of the Starbugs Instruments.

Proceedings Article | 29 August 2022 Poster + Paper

Design of the near infrared camera DIRAC for East Anatolia Observatory

Ross Zhelem, Robert Content, Vladimir Churilov, Yevgen Kripak, Lew Waller, Scott Case, Slavko Mali, Rolf Muller, Mario Gonzalez, David Adams, Nick Binos, Timothy Chin, Tony Farrell, Urs Klauser, Yuriy Kondrat, Nirmala Kunwar, Jon. Lawrence, Nuria Lorente, Summer Luo, Erica Mcdonald, Helen McGregor, Vijay Nichani, Naveen Pai, Minh Vuong, Jahanzeb Zahoor, Jessica Zheng, Barnaby Norris, Julia Bryant, Annino Vaccarella, Nick Herrald, James Gilbert, Cahit Yesilyaprak, Bulent Gucsav, Deniz Coker, Onur Keskin, Laurent Jolissaint

Proceedings Volume 12184, 1218440 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629716

KEYWORDS: Sensors, Cameras, Optical filters, Telescopes, Adaptive optics, Lenses, Cryogenics, Mirrors, Image quality, Coronagraphy

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Proceedings Article | 26 August 2022 Poster + Paper

A Starbug's life: a material trade study using fatigue life criteria for high-altitude robotic fibre positioning instruments

Ellie O'Brien, Jon Lawrence, Celestina Lacombe, Michael Thomakos, Michael Goodwin, James Gilbert, Slavko Mali, Rolf Muller, Nirmala Kunwar, Jahanzeb Zahoor, Lew Waller, Tony Farrell

Proceedings Volume 12182, 1218236 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629152

KEYWORDS: Ferroelectric materials, Green fluorescent protein, Electrodes, Telescopes, Mechanics, Safety, Roads, Observatories, Robots, Robotics

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Starbugs are self-motile fibre optic positioning robots developed by AAO-MQ. The MANIFEST (MANy Instrument FibrE SysTem) is a facility class Instrument which will operate up to 900 Starbugs on the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). The FOBOS (Fibre-Optic Broadband Optical Spectrograph) Fibre Positioner is a facility class Instrument which will operate up to 1800 Starbugs on the Keck Telescope. The Starbugs deliver an optical payload to the location of an astronomical object on the telescope focal plane. The Starbugs are made from a pair of concentric Piezoceramic Tubes (PZT), and a high-voltage waveform is applied to the PZT to create an actuation. Staging of the waveform creates successive microsteps, on the order of 3-20 μm each, at a driven frequency of 100Hz. The Starbugs are adhered to the Glass Field Plate (GFP) using an ancillary vacuum system. The Starbugs have an airtight vacuum sealing component between the PZT and the GFP, called Slippers, which serve as a traction surface against the polished GFP. The Slippers set the science fibre focus offset, which has functional requirements that trace to Observatory level requirements. The Slipper components are subject to non-zero centred fully reversed fatigue loading due to the combined load case of the vacuum induced compression and the shear load of the PZT actuation as the Starbug completes the step. The contact interface between the Slipper and the GFP is subject to surface fatigue and functions as a sacrificial wear surface to ensure the longevity of both the PZT and the optical payload. The fatigue life behaviour of the Slipper, with particular interest on this interface, was defined using industry standard methods and informed the trade study to select the appropriate material for the Slippers to survive a nominal period on-sky (fatigue life). The trade study terms were vacuum sealing ability as a function of mechanical hardness versus fatigue life (108 cycles). Several suitable materials were identified and will be physically prototyped, with results reported in this manuscript.

Proceedings Article | 25 August 2022 Presentation + Paper

Pyxel 1.0: an open source Python framework for detector and end-to-end instrument simulation

Matej Arko, Thibaut Prod'homme, Frédéric Lemmel, Benoit Serra, Elizabeth George, Bradley Kelman, Thibault Pichon, Enrico Biancalani, James Gilbert

Proceedings Volume 12187, 1218705 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629241

KEYWORDS: Sensors, Data modeling, Device simulation, Calibration, CMOS sensors, CCD image sensors, Diodes, Capacitance, Instrument modeling, Avalanche photodetectors

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SPIE Journal Paper | 13 May 2022

Emu: a case study for TDI-like imaging for infrared observation from space

Joice Mathew, James Gilbert, Robert Sharp, Alexey Grigoriev, Adam Rains, Anna Moore, Annino Vaccarella, Aurelie Magniez, David Chandler, Ian Price, Luca Casagrande, Maruša Žerjal, Michael Ireland, Michael Bessell, Nicholas Herrald, Shanae King, Thomas Nordlander

JATIS, Vol. 8, Issue 02, 024002, (May 2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.10.1117/1.JATIS.8.2.024002

KEYWORDS: Stars, Sensors, Infrared radiation, Infrared imaging, Telescopes, Absorption, Space operations, Infrared telescopes, Infrared detectors, Signal to noise ratio

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Proceedings Article | 13 December 2020 Presentation + Paper

A space-based near-infrared sky survey to study the oxygen abundance in cool stars

Joice Mathew, James Gilbert, Robert Sharp, Alexey Grigoriev, Shanae King, Annino Vaccarella, David Chandler, Nicholas Herrald, Ian Price, Aurelie Magniez

Proceedings Volume 11443, 114430J (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2560898

KEYWORDS: Stars, Oxygen, Infrared imaging, Infrared radiation, Galactic astronomy, Water, Telescopes, Astrophysics, Exoplanets, Sensors

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Proceedings Article | 13 December 2020 Poster + Paper

GLUV Pathfinder: setting up for rapid cadence UV monitoring of the transient universe

Harrison Abbot, Joice Mathew, Ryan Ridden-Harper, Brad Tucker, Eduardo Trifoni, Robert Sharp, James Gilbert, Nirmal Kaipachery, Mikhael Sayat

Proceedings Volume 11444, 114446V (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2562172

KEYWORDS: Ultraviolet radiation, Astronomy, Earth's atmosphere, Atmospheric monitoring, Absorption, Near ultraviolet, Ozone, Solar processes, Signal to noise ratio, Wind energy

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Proceedings Article | 13 December 2020 Paper

MAVIS conceptual design

François Rigaut, Richard McDermid, Giovanni Cresci, Valentina Viotto, Simon Ellis, David Brodrick, Guido Agapito, Thierry Fusco, Benoit Neichel, Pierre Haguenauer, Cedric Plantet, Bernardo Salasnich, Matteo Aliverti, Simone Antoniucci, Andrea Balestra, Andrea Baruffolo, Olivier Beltramo-Martin, Maria Bergomi, Andrea Blanco, Marco Bonaglia, Giuseppe Bono, Lorenzo Busoni, Elena Carolo, Simonetta Chinellato, Robert Content, Jesse Cranney, Gayandhi de Silva, Simone Esposito, Daniela Fantinel, Jacopo Farinato, Dionne Haynes, Anthony Horton, Gaston Gausachs, James Gilbert, Damien Gratadour, Davide Greggio, Marco Gullieuszik, Visa Korkiakoski, Demetrio Magrin, Laura Magrini, Luca Marafatto, Helen McGregor, Trevor Mendel, Stephanie Monty, Fernando Pedichini, Enrico Pinna, Elisa Portaluri, Kalyan Radhakrishnan, Roberto Ragazzoni, David Robertson, Christian Schwab, Stefan Ströbele, Elliott Thorn, Annino Vaccarella, Daniele Vassallo, Lew Waller, Frédéric Zamkotsian, Alesso Zanutta, Hao Zhang

Proceedings Volume 11447, 114471R (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2561886

KEYWORDS: Visible radiation, James Webb Space Telescope, Observatories, Adaptive optics, Large telescopes, Spectrographs, Spatial resolution, Hubble Space Telescope, Telescopes

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Proceedings Article | 13 December 2020 Poster + Paper

MAVIS: science case, imager, and spectrograph

Simon Ellis, Richard McDermid, Giovanni Cresci, Christian Schwab, Francois Rigaut, Timothy Chin, Robert Content, Anthony Horton, Mahesh Mohanan, Helen McGregor, Jacob Pember, David Robertson, Lew Waller, Ross Zhelem, Stephanie Monty, Trevor Mendel, Matteo Aliverti, Guido Agapito, Simone Antoniucci, Andrea Balestra, Andrea Baruffolo, Maria Bergomi, Andrea Bianco, Marco Bonaglia, Guiseppe Bono, Jean-Claude Bouret, David Brodrick, Lorenzo Busoni, Elena Carolo, Simonetta Chinellato, Jess Cranney, Gayandhi De Silva, Simone Esposito, Daniela Fantinel, Jacopo Farinato, Thierry Fusco, Gaston Gausachs, James Gilbert, Damien Gratadour, Davide Gerggio, Marco Gullieuszik, Pierre Haguenauer, Dionne Haynes, Visa Korkiakoski, Demetrio Magrin, Laura Magrini, Luca Marafatto, Benoit Neichel, Fernando Pedichini, Enrico Pinna, Cedric Plantet, Elisa Portaluri, Kalyan Radhakrishnan, Roberto Ragazzoni, Bernado Salasnich, Stefan Ströbele, Elliott Thorn, Annino Vaccarella, Daniele Vassallo, Valentina Viotto, Frédéric Zamkotsian, Alessio Zanutta, Hao Zhang

Proceedings Volume 11447, 11447A0 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2561930

KEYWORDS: Imaging systems, Spectrographs, Visible radiation, Adaptive optics, Stars, Galactic astronomy, Image quality, V band, Spectral resolution, Spatial resolution

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