
Proceedings Paper
Recent testing of a micro autonomous positioning system for multi-object instrumentationFormat | Member Price | Non-Member Price |
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Paper Abstract
A multiple pick off mirror positioning sub-system has been developed as a solution for the deployment of mirrors within
multi-object instrumentation such as the EAGLE instrument in the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The
positioning sub-system is a two wheeled differential steered friction drive robot with a footprint of approximately 20 x
20 mm. Controlled by RF communications there are two versions of the robot that exist. One is powered by a single cell
lithium ion battery and the other utilises a power floor system. The robots use two brushless DC motors with 125:1
planetary gear heads for positioning in the coarse drive stages. A unique power floor allows the robots to be positioned at
any location in any orientation on the focal plane. The design, linear repeatability tests, metrology and power continuity
of the robot will be evaluated and presented in this paper. To gather photons from the objects of interest it is important to
position POMs within a sphere of confusion of less than 10 μm, with an angular alignment better than 1 mrad. The
robots potential of meeting these requirements will be described through the open-loop repeatability tests conducted with
a Faro laser beam tracker. Tests have involved sending the robot step commands and automatically taking continuous
measurements every three seconds. Currently the robot is capable of repeatedly travelling 233 mm within 0.307 mm at 5
mm/s. An analysis of the power floors reliability through the continuous monitoring of the voltage across the tracks with
a Pico logger will also be presented.
Paper Details
Date Published: 13 September 2012
PDF: 14 pages
Proc. SPIE 8450, Modern Technologies in Space- and Ground-based Telescopes and Instrumentation II, 845019 (13 September 2012); doi: 10.1117/12.924644
Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8450:
Modern Technologies in Space- and Ground-based Telescopes and Instrumentation II
Ramón Navarro; Colin R. Cunningham; Eric Prieto, Editor(s)
PDF: 14 pages
Proc. SPIE 8450, Modern Technologies in Space- and Ground-based Telescopes and Instrumentation II, 845019 (13 September 2012); doi: 10.1117/12.924644
Show Author Affiliations
W. A. Cochrane, Heriot Watt Univ. (United Kingdom)
D. C. Atkinson, UK Astronomy Technology Ctr., Royal Observatory (United Kingdom)
T. E. C. Bailie, UK Astronomy Technology Ctr., Royal Observatory (United Kingdom)
C. Dickson, UK Astronomy Technology Ctr., Royal Observatory (United Kingdom)
T. Lim, Heriot Watt Univ. (United Kingdom)
D. C. Atkinson, UK Astronomy Technology Ctr., Royal Observatory (United Kingdom)
T. E. C. Bailie, UK Astronomy Technology Ctr., Royal Observatory (United Kingdom)
C. Dickson, UK Astronomy Technology Ctr., Royal Observatory (United Kingdom)
T. Lim, Heriot Watt Univ. (United Kingdom)
X. Luo, Heriot Watt Univ. (United Kingdom)
D. M. Montgomery, UK Astronomy Technology Ctr., Royal Observatory (United Kingdom)
H. Schnetler, UK Astronomy Technology Ctr., Royal Observatory (United Kingdom)
W. D. Taylor, Institute for Astronomy, Royal Observatory (United Kingdom)
B. Wilson, UK Astronomy Technology Ctr., Royal Observatory (United Kingdom)
D. M. Montgomery, UK Astronomy Technology Ctr., Royal Observatory (United Kingdom)
H. Schnetler, UK Astronomy Technology Ctr., Royal Observatory (United Kingdom)
W. D. Taylor, Institute for Astronomy, Royal Observatory (United Kingdom)
B. Wilson, UK Astronomy Technology Ctr., Royal Observatory (United Kingdom)
Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8450:
Modern Technologies in Space- and Ground-based Telescopes and Instrumentation II
Ramón Navarro; Colin R. Cunningham; Eric Prieto, Editor(s)
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