New techniques in automated fiber positioning

Ian J. Lewis; Ian Robert Parry

doi:10.1117/12.19140

1 July 1990 New techniques in automated fiber positioning

Ian J. Lewis, Ian Robert Parry

Proceedings Volume 1235, Instrumentation in Astronomy VII; (1990) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.19140
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation for the 21st Century, 1990, Tucson, AZ, United States

Abstract

We have built a laboratory prototype to evaluate the performance of an innovative design of robot for optical fibre placement as part of the design study for the proposed 2° field (2dF)"5 for the Anglo Australian Telescope (AAT). Based on the Autofib-12'4 system operating at the AAT, it uses a new design of gripper to manipulate, and also measure the positions of fibre optic probes. The new design incorporates a CCD TV camera to check on the accuracy of each fibre's position in real time as the fibres are being placed, with any slight adjustment required being made automatically. This automatic error correction will eliminate the need for extensive calibration procedures, and provide the improved accuracy required to work at typical 4m prime focus platescales. Our laboratory prototype exhibits good accuracy (<10pm rms) and reliability and we now intend to use this approach at the prime focus of the William Herschel Telescope (WHT)3. In this paper we report on the overall performance of the new design and assess it's practicality in applications on real telescopes.

Citation Download Citation

Ian J. Lewis and Ian Robert Parry "New techniques in automated fiber positioning", Proc. SPIE 1235, Instrumentation in Astronomy VII, (1 July 1990); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.19140

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