Proceedings Article | 27 June 2006
KEYWORDS: Control systems, Telescopes, Cameras, Sensors, Photonic integrated circuits, Imaging systems, Mirrors, Electronics, Telecommunications, Robotics
AMICA is a camera conceived to automatically acquire infrared astronomical images in the extreme environment of
Dome C (T ~ -70 °C, p ~ 640 mbar). For this reason, hardware and software are specially designed. They must
guarantee the correct execution of observing procedures, while performing a continuous monitoring of the
environmental conditions, the instrument status and the observing parameters, and a real-time adjustment of them when
required. All temperature-sensitive components will be placed in a thermally controlled rack. The environmental control
inside it is assigned to a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). It is responsible, in particular, for the overall system
start-up. Instrument status, mainly concerning vacuum level and temperatures inside the cryostat, is directly monitored
by the local cPC, which sends instructions to the PLC in case of failure, in order to start appropriate restoring
procedures. All hardware components are conceived to be easily and fast replaceable. Main tasks of the AMICA
Control Software (ACS) are: telescope interaction, observation management, environment control, events handling, data
storing. Because of the high frame rate, typical of infrared imaging, the acquisition system has been interfaced with an
independent application (STS), to perform read-out electronics control, fast data processing (co-adding from chopping
raw frames), parameters checking (such as exposure time, chopping frequency, etc.), and data output. The software
design has a multithreading architecture, based on the Object Oriented approach and developed for Windows OS
platforms.
