Related papers: Deployable Payloads with Starbug
Starbugs are miniature piezoelectric walking robots that can be operated in parallel to position many payloads like optical fibers across a telescopes focal plane. They consist of two concentric piezoelectric ceramic tubes that walk with…
Starbugs are miniaturised robotic devices that position optical fibres over a telescope's focal plane in parallel operation for high multiplex spectroscopic surveys. The key advantage of the Starbug positioning system is its potential to…
Starbugs are miniature piezoelectric 'walking' robots with the ability to simultaneously position many optical fibres across a telescope's focal plane. Their simple design incorporates two piezoceramic tubes to form a pair of concentric…
The Australian Astronomical Observatory has extensively prototyped a new robotic positioner to allow simultaneous positioning of optical fibers at the focal plane called 'Starbugs'. The Starbug devices each consist of two concentric…
Integral-field-spectroscopy and multi-object-spectroscopy provide the high multiplex gain required for efficient use of the upcoming generation of extremely large telescopes. We present instrument developments and designs for both concepts,…
The ability to position multiple miniaturized wavefront sensors precisely over large focal surfaces are advantageous to multi-object adaptive optics. The Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO) has prototyped a compact and lightweight…
The TAIPAN instrument, currently being developed for the Australian Astronomical Observatory's UK Schmidt telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, makes use of the AAO's Starbug technology to deploy 150 science fibres to target positions on…
Astrophotonics represents a cutting-edge approach in observational astronomy. This paper explores the significant advancements and potential applications of astrophotonics, highlighting how photonic technologies stand to revolutionise…
Astrophotonics is a burgeoning field that lies at the interface of photonics and modern astronomical instrumentation. Here we provide a pedagogical review of basic photonic functions that enable modern instruments, and give an overview of…
In this paper, a deformable object is considered for cameras deployment with the aim of visual coverage. The object contour is discretized into sampled points as meshes, and the deformation is represented as continuous trajectories for the…
FPGAs are going mainstream. Major companies that were not traditionally FPGA-focused are now seeking ways to exploit the benefits of reconfigurable technology and provide it to their customers. In order to do so, a debug ecosystem that…
We propose a new instrumental concept for long-baseline optical single-mode interferometry using integrated optics which were developed for telecommunication. Visible and infrared multi-aperture interferometry requires many optical…
We present a conceptual design for a fiber positioning system for multi-object high-resolution spectroscopy, designed to be compatible with the upcoming large telescopes with a wide field of view. The design incorporates multiple…
We introduce UFO, a modular aerial robotic platform for transforming a rigid object into a multirotor robot. To achieve this, we develop flight modules, in the form of a control module and propelling modules, that can be affixed to an…
Photonics offer numerous functionalities that can be used to realize astrophotonic instruments. The most spectacular example to date is the ESO Gravity instrument at the Very Large Telescope in Chile. Integrated astrophotonic devices stand…
The Australian Astronomical Observatory's TAIPAN instrument deploys 150 Starbug robots to position optical fibres to accuracies of 0.3 arcsec, on a 32 cm glass field plate on the focal plane of the 1.2 m UK-Schmidt telescope. This paper…
Stratospheric balloons offer cost-effective access to space and grant the opportunity for fast scientific innovation cycles and higher-risk explorations. In addition to science pathfinders, they serve as platforms for technology…
As telescope facilities become increasingly more capable they also become increasingly complex and require additional resources to operate. This is particularly true for the current and future generations of "software defined telescopes"…
Fiber-fed spectrographs dedicated to observing massive portions of the sky are increasingly being more demanded within the astronomical community. For all the fiber-fed instruments, the primordial and common problem is the positioning of…
The fields of view of Extremely Large Telescopes will contain vast numbers of spatial sampling elements (spaxels) as their Adaptive Optics systems approach the diffraction limit over wide fields. Since this will exceed the detection…