The telescope control system for the ASTRI Mini-Array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes

Abstract

The ASTRI Mini-Array is an international project led by INAF to construct and operate nine Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes with the scientific goals of studying several classes of objects possibly emitting at energies higher than some TeVs and of performing stellar intensity interferometry observations. The telescopes array will be installed at the Teide Observatory (Tenerife, Spain). A Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) software system will be developed to manage the ASTRI Mini-Array allowing its control remotely, from several locations. One of the most important components of the SCADA system is the Telescope Control System (TCS), i.e. the system responsible for the control and supervision of each telescope. The TCS includes several supervisor components, that interface with the telescope local control systems, the hardware and software that control the telescopes hardware devices such as the telescope mount drive systems and the Cherenkov camera, via the Open Platform Communications - Unified Architecture (OPC-UA) standard. These supervisors are then controlled by a telescope manager component responsible for the execution of the single telescope scientific and technical operations requested, orchestrated and synchronized centrally by the SCADA array central controller. This contribution describes the TCS architecture, design and development approach in the context of the general SCADA architecture and of the ALMA Common Software, the framework chosen for the development of all SCADA software of the ASTRI Mini-Array.