The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is a new instrument currently under construction for the Mayall 4-m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. It will consist of a wide-field optical corrector with a 3.2 degree diameter field of view, a focal plane with 5,000 robotically controlled fiber positioners and 10 fiber-fed broad-band spectrographs. The DESI Instrument Control System (ICS) coordinates fiber positioner operations, interfaces to the Mayall telescope control system, monitors operating conditions, reads out the 30 spectrograph CCDs and provides observer support and data quality monitoring. In this article, we summarize the ICS design, review the current status of the project and present results from a multi-stage test plan that was developed to ensure the system is fully operational by the time the instrument arrives at the observatory in 2019.
@article{arxiv.1807.09366,
title = {The DESI Instrument Control System: Status and Early Testing},
author = {Klaus Honscheid and Ann Elliott and Elizabeth Buckley-Geer and Bezhad Abreshi and Francisco Castender and Luiz daCosta and Stephen Kent and David Kirkby and Robert Marshall and Eric Neilsen and Riccardo Ogando and David Rabinowitz and Aaron roodman and Santiago Serrano and David Brooks and Michael Levi and Greg Tarle},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.09366},
year = {2018}
}