Goals and strategies in the global control design of the OAJ Robotic Observatory
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.