Proceedings Article | 13 September 2012
A. Yanes-Díaz, S. Rueda-Teruel, J. L. Antón, F. Rueda-Teruel, M. Moles, A. J. Cenarro, A. Marín-Franch, A. Ederoclite, N. Gruel, J. Varela, D. Cristóbal-Hornillos, S. Chueca, M. C. Díaz-Martín, L. Guillén, R. Luis-Simoes, N. Maícas, J. L. Lamadrid, A. López-Sainz, J. Hernández-Fuertes, L. Valdivielso, C. Mendes de Oliveira, P. Penteado, W. Schoenell, A. Kanaan
KEYWORDS: Observatories, Control systems, Control systems design, Astronomy, Telescopes, Telecommunications, Robotics, Data communications, Buildings, Photonic integrated circuits
There are many ways to solve the challenging problem of making a high performance robotic observatory from scratch.
The Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (OAJ) is a new astronomical facility located in the Sierra de Javalambre
(Teruel, Spain) whose primary role will be to conduct all-sky astronomical surveys. The OAJ control system has been
designed from a global point of view including astronomical subsystems as well as infrastructures and other facilities.
Three main factors have been considered in the design of a global control system for the robotic OAJ: quality, reliability
and efficiency. We propose CIA (Control Integrated Architecture) design and OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) as
a key performance indicator in order to improve operation processes, minimizing resources and obtaining high cost
reduction whilst maintaining quality requirements.
The OAJ subsystems considered for the control integrated architecture are the following: two wide-field telescopes and
their instrumentation, active optics subsystems, facilities for sky quality monitoring (seeing, extinction, sky background,
sky brightness, cloud distribution, meteorological station), domes and several infrastructure facilities such as water
supply, glycol water, water treatment plant, air conditioning, compressed air, LN2 plant, illumination, surveillance,
access control, fire suppression, electrical generators, electrical distribution, electrical consumption, communication
network, Uninterruptible Power Supply and two main control rooms, one at the OAJ and the other remotely located in
Teruel, 40km from the observatory, connected through a microwave radio-link.
This paper presents the OAJ strategy in control design to achieve maximum quality efficiency for the observatory
processes and operations, giving practical examples of our approach.
