Robotic telescope systems for CCD photometry of faint objects in crowded fields

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This paper first considers the design of robotic telescopes to monitor faint objects in crowded fields. It shows that the mechanical design problems have been solved by the use of precision control and modelling software developed for the latest large telescopes. Modern design methods mean that these telescopes can be produced relatively cheaply. The largest part of the cost of a robotic telescope is the software to enable it to work as an autonomous robot. Conventional software techniques are inadequate and inefficient for many purposes associated with robotic operation. These include: to optimize and monitor their operation and efficiency, to schedule their observing, to evaluate their environment, to generate confidence in the target acquisition pattern recognition parameters, to evaluate the quality of the CCD images and the photometry of the objects within the images, and to return reduced data to the astronomer with the required indices to gives the astronomer confidence in the data. The paper evaluates AI, neural nets and fuzzy logic techniques applied to these different problems.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: