Mr. Andrew Ferayorni Profile

Mr. Andrew Ferayorni

Principal Engineer at National Solar Observatory

SPIE Involvement:

Author

Area of Expertise:

Control Systems , High Performance Computing

Profile Summary

Andrew is a Senior Software Engineer at the National Solar Observatory in Tucson, Arizona. He is currently working on the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) as the lead software engineer for the first light Visible Broadband Imager (VBI) instrument and the Polarimetry Analysis and Calibration (PA&C) system. Andrew received his BSE and MS in Computer Systems Engineering from Arizona State University. Andrew’s experience as a software engineer over 15 years includes distributed, real-time, and motion control systems for observatory and manufacturing projects.

Publications (9)

PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | August 18, 2016

Construction status of the Daniel K. Inouye solar telescope

Proc. SPIE. 9906, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VI

KEYWORDS: Observatories, Telescopes, Mirrors, Imaging systems, Control systems, Deformable mirrors, Optical fabrication, Buildings, Space telescopes, Solar processes

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We provide an update on the construction status of the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope. This 4-m diameter facility is designed to enable detection and spatial/temporal resolution of the predicted, fundamental astrophysical processes driving solar magnetism at their intrinsic scales throughout the solar atmosphere. These data will drive key research on solar magnetism and its influence on solar winds, flares, coronal mass ejections and solar irradiance variability. The facility is developed to support a broad wavelength range (0.35 to 28 microns) and will employ state-of-the-art adaptive optics systems to provide diffraction limited imaging, resolving features approximately 20 km on the Sun. At the start of operations, there will be five instruments initially deployed: Visible Broadband Imager (VBI; National Solar Observatory), Visible SpectroPolarimeter (ViSP; NCAR High Altitude Observatory), Visible Tunable Filter (VTF (a Fabry-Perot tunable spectropolarimeter); Kiepenheuer Institute for Solarphysics), Diffraction Limited NIR Spectropolarimeter (DL-NIRSP; University of Hawaii, Institute for Astronomy) and the Cryogenic NIR Spectropolarimeter (Cryo-NIRSP; University of Hawaii, Institute for Astronomy).

As of mid-2016, the project construction is in its 4th year of site construction and 7th year overall. Major milestones in the off-site development include the conclusion of the polishing of the M1 mirror by University of Arizona, College of Optical Sciences, the delivery of the Top End Optical Assembly (L3), the acceptance of the Deformable Mirror System (Xinetics); all optical systems have been contracted and are either accepted or in fabrication. The Enclosure and Telescope Mount Assembly passed through their factory acceptance in 2014 and 2015, respectively. The enclosure site construction is currently concluding while the Telescope Mount Assembly site erection is underway. The facility buildings (Utility and Support and Operations) have been completed with ongoing work on the thermal systems to support the challenging imaging requirements needed for the solar research.

Finally, we present the construction phase performance (schedule, budget) with projections for the start of early operations.

PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | August 16, 2016

Bottom-up laboratory testing of the DKIST Visible Broadband Imager (VBI)

Proc. SPIE. 9911, Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy VI

KEYWORDS: Human-machine interfaces, Digital signal processing, Imaging systems, Cameras, Sensors, Calibration, Control systems, Computer programming, Servomechanisms, Motion controllers

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The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is a 4-meter solar observatory under construction at Haleakala, Hawaii [1]. The Visible Broadband Imager (VBI) is a first light instrument that will record images at the highest possible spatial and temporal resolution of the DKIST at a number of scientifically important wavelengths [2]. The VBI is a pathfinder for DKIST instrumentation and a test bed for developing processes and procedures in the areas of unit, systems integration, and user acceptance testing. These test procedures have been developed and repeatedly executed during VBI construction in the lab as part of a "test early and test often" philosophy aimed at identifying and resolving issues early thus saving cost during integration test and commissioning on summit.

The VBI team recently completed a bottom up end-to-end system test of the instrument in the lab that allowed the instrument’s functionality, performance, and usability to be validated against documented system requirements. The bottom up testing approach includes four levels of testing, each introducing another layer in the control hierarchy that is tested before moving to the next level. First the instrument mechanisms are tested for positioning accuracy and repeatability using a laboratory position-sensing detector (PSD). Second the real-time motion controls are used to drive the mechanisms to verify speed and timing synchronization requirements are being met. Next the high-level software is introduced and the instrument is driven through a series of end-to-end tests that exercise the mechanisms, cameras, and simulated data processing. Finally, user acceptance testing is performed on operational and engineering use cases through the use of the instrument engineering graphical user interface (GUI).

In this paper we present the VBI bottom up test plan, procedures, example test cases and tools used, as well as results from test execution in the laboratory. We will also discuss the benefits realized through completion of this testing, and share lessons learned from the bottoms up testing process.

PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | August 9, 2016

DKIST visible broadband imager alignment in laboratory: first results

Proc. SPIE. 9908, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI

KEYWORDS: Monochromatic aberrations, Mirrors, Data modeling, Lenses, Interferometers, Interferometry, Monte Carlo methods, Objectives, Optical alignment, Tolerancing

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | August 8, 2016

Project management and control of the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope

Proc. SPIE. 9911, Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy VI

KEYWORDS: Observatories, Solar telescopes, Phase modulation, Databases, Chromium, Control systems, Process control, Systems engineering, Neodymium, Content addressable memory

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | July 18, 2014

DKIST controls model for synchronization of instrument cameras, polarization modulators, and mechanisms

Proc. SPIE. 9152, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy III

KEYWORDS: Mirrors, Clocks, Modulation, Polarization, Imaging systems, Cameras, Control systems, Modulators, Motion controllers, Virtual colonoscopy

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The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) will include facility instruments that perform polarimetric observations of the sun. In order for an instrument to successfully perform these observations its Instrument Controller (IC) software must be able to tightly synchronize the activities of its sub-systems including polarization modulators, cameras, and mechanisms. In this paper we discuss the DKIST control model for synchronizing these sub-systems without the use of hardware trigger lines by using the DKIST Time Reference And Distribution System (TRADS) as a common time base and through sub-system control interfaces that support configuring the timing and cadence of their behavior. The DKIST Polarization Modulator Controller System (PMCS) provides an interface that allows the IC to characterize the rotation of the modulator in terms of a reference time (t0), rate, and start state. The DKIST Virtual Camera (VC) provides a complimentary interface that allows data acquisitions and accumulation sequences to be specified using a reference time (t0), rate, and execution block time slices, which are cumulative offsets from t0. Re-configuration of other instrument mechanisms such as filter, slits, or steering mirrors during the observation is the responsibility of the IC and must be carefully scheduled at known and pre-determined gaps in the VC data acquisition sequence. The DKIST TRADS provides an IEEE-1588-2008 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) service that is used to synchronize the activities of instrument sub-systems. The modulator, camera, and mechanism sub-systems subscribe to this service and can therefore perform their tasks according to a common time base. In this paper we discuss the design of the PMCS, VC, and mechanism control interfaces, and how the IC can use them to configure the behavior of these sub-systems during an observation. We also discuss the interface to TRADS and how it is used as a common time base in each of these sub-systems. We present our preliminary results of the system performance against known instrument use cases.

PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | July 18, 2014

DKIST visible broadband imager data processing pipeline

Proc. SPIE. 9152, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy III

KEYWORDS: Solar telescopes, Imaging systems, Speckle, Cameras, Calibration, Data storage, Image processing, Computer programming, Data processing, Java

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | September 24, 2012

Accelerated speckle imaging with the ATST visible broadband imager

Proc. SPIE. 8451, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy II

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Imaging systems, Spatial frequencies, Speckle, Cameras, Data storage, Image processing, Data acquisition, Data processing, Reconstruction algorithms

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | September 24, 2012

Instrument control software for the Visible Broadband Imager using ATST common services framework and base

Proc. SPIE. 8451, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy II

KEYWORDS: Human-machine interfaces, Observatories, Optical filters, Solar telescopes, Imaging systems, Cameras, Sensors, Control systems, Control systems design, Motion controllers

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | September 24, 2012

ATST visible broadband imager

Proc. SPIE. 8446, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IV

KEYWORDS: Diffraction, Telescopes, Optical filters, Solar telescopes, Imaging systems, Speckle, Cameras, Interference filters, Image restoration, Image filtering

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Showing 5 of 9 publications

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