RoboNet-II

Robotic operations, System outline and data processing

Yiannis Tsapras, 2008, LCOGT, Santa Barbara

People

Y Tsapras (LCOGT) R Street (LCOGT) K Horne (St Andrews) (PI) C Snodgrass (ESO) D Bramich (ING) M Dominik (St Andrews) N Kains (St Andrews) N Rattenbury (Manchester) M Burgdorf (ARI)

A Allan (eSTAR/Exeter) E Hawkins (LCOGT) C Mottram (eSTAR/ARI) N Clay (eSTAR/ARI) I Steele (eSTAR/ARI) B Haworth (LCOGT) S Fraser (eSTAR/ARI)

The telescope network

FTS+FTN+LT LCOGT

expansion plans (M. Falarski)

All telescopes used by microlensing teams

System Layout

The Robotic Control System

The Robotic Control System

Runs on a computer at each telescope site Issues instructions to the software controlling the telescope

and instruments. It performs:• Start-up and end of night operations

• Observations (Science,ToO, RTI, background) Receives updates from local weather station and closes

down operations if parameters exceed allowed ranges Receives input from:

• Observer Support System (normal observations database)

• Target of Opportunity Control System (bypass normal operations)

Requesting observations The Phase-II database contains all observation program details

[targets, configuration, exposures] All observations are part of proposals

• A proposal contains:• Groups of observations [specify:activation,expiration,monitoring,conditions]

• Individual observation requests [specify: instrument,position,repeats,exptime]

5 types of Groups:• Flexible -one off observations, can be performed any time

• Fixed -one off observations, performed at specific times

• Monitoring -periodic observations of same target, fixed interval

• Ephemeris -performed at given phase in a variable objects cycle

• MinInterval -performed at least the specified interval apart

microlensing

Example of phase-II entry

Example of phase-II entry

Example of phase-II entry

Intelligent Agents create these entries automatically! (wait for a few more slides)

Scheduling observations

When RCS requests next Group of observations…

All Groups in database are sorted by the Scheduling algorithm• In a rapidly changing environment, the

selected group is one that is best matched to current conditions

• Takes into account: local conditions, phase-II model, Group history. (Fraser S.,2006, AN, 327,779)

Scheduling metrics Group scoring

• Slew time

• Lateness in project

• Time used in proposal relative to allocation

• Matching of actual condition to requested (seeing/lunar)

• Assigned priority level

• Proposal science priority

• Observing windows missed by monitor/ephemeris group Observation scoring

• Target location (height)

• Transit height fraction

• Distance from the moon

What does this mean?

Observing programs in the database are constantly competing for telescope time

• We generally do not know when an observation will be performed or from which telescope (though we can have a pretty good guess)

• It was designed this way to accommodate a large global telescope network

• Only very basic user input, the system does the rest

Intelligent agents

Intelligent agents

eSTAR external agent• Receives prioritised list of targets regularly from

RoboNet-II (web-PLOP, every hour)

• Submits observation queries and requests to…

Telescope Embedded Agent (TEA & node agent)• Responds to eSTAR agent about telescope suitability

for specific observing request

• Handles the requests from external agents and updates Phase-II database

Intelligent agents (addendum)

We can override normal observations manually via a webpage interface or from our iPod Touch while having coffee at Starbucks

Prioritising the events

Prioritising the events

Planet Lens Optimisation (“web-PLOP” Snodgrass 2008)

• Provides optimal target list for automated observing (updated every 15 min)

• Keeps up to date record of all data from OGLE,MOA,PLANET,RoboNet-II observations

• New fits performed when new data points arrive (PLENS,

SIGNALMEN, web page updates) List read by the eSTAR intelligent agent Receives input from anomaly detector (which tags anomalous

events as high priority) Prioritisation algorithm (Horne 2008, MNRAS, submitted)

Anomaly detection

Anomaly detection

Exploits the systems’ possibility of automated fast response and flexible scheduling (M. Dominik)

How?• Receives new data by rsync from RoboNet-II cluster (as soon

as these are processed by our pipeline)

• Data from other surveys also included

• Identifies new points that are deviating

• Action requests: check, anomaly, ordinary

• No manual intervention needed

• Currently this mode of override only works for real-time RoboNet-II data

Quicklook Archiving

Archives

The reduction pipeline

The reduction pipeline

Intercepts incoming microlensing data Performs an assessment of data quality Updates the log file of observations Moves data to the appropriate event directories If appropriate, identifies the target position on

reference (based on WCS fits to the finder charts) – R. Street

Initiates Difference Image Analysis pipeline

The reduction pipeline

Creates a template reference frame Geometric and Photometric alignment of all images

to the reference frame Matches the seeing between each image and the

reference Subtracts each scaled image from the reference Variable stars leave a positive or negative residual Fits PSF to target Update photometry (also on web-PLOP, ARTEMiS and the

PLANET webpages)

OB08199

The reduction pipeline (dfd)

Results displayed “live”

2008 e-mail exchanges (anomaly and high magnif.)

KB08075 KB08117-binary

KB08159-scatter at peak?

KB08171 KB08198 KB08199-binary

KB08267 KB08280 KB08308 KB08284-binary source

KB08310-planet?

KB08336 KB08380 KB08384-binary

OB08013 OB08208 OB08272 OB08210-peak anomaly

OB08270-planet?

OB08272 OB08320 OB08330 OB08342 OB08346 OB08349 OB08355 OB08378 OB08432 OB08493 OB08510-peak anomaly

OB08513-planet?

OB08559

32 emails alerting suspected anomalous behaviour OB08151

OB08209 OB08215 OB08290-finite source

OB08426 OB08509 KB08022 KB08096 KB08105 KB08225 KB08311 KB08383 KB08402 KB08415 KB08428-anomalous

KB08453

16 emails alerting possible high magnification

KB08384

OB08210

OB08510

KB08310

microFUN

•Probably a Saturn-like planet?, pretty close to the Einstein ring (preliminary model by Subo

Dong)•Strong Parallax signal

OB08270

Preliminary modelling based on microFUN + SAAO data around the peak seem indicate the presence of Jovian planetary companion

OB08513

q~0.018?

OB08513

2008 season summary Time used : 313.16 hours Events observed: 502, 266(>5 data points)

Data FTN FTS LT

• Used : 1602 5494 1294

• Rejected: 363 2375 1118(?)

• Total : 12246 [used:8390/rejected:3856]

Events observed: 331, 214(>5 data points)

Data FTN FTS LT• Used : 1016 5965 611

• Rejected: 182 5921 318

• Total : 14013 [used:7592/rejected:6421]

2007

>5 dp : 204.04 hrs (65%) <5 dp : 10.37 hrs (3%) Rejected : 98.75 hrs (32%)

What fraction of the time?

Issues Software: deploy, debug, maintain…

• Introduce extra internal monitoring, auto-recovery mechanisms where possible

School programs (1 to 4 hours on most nights)• Not much we can do. Wait for 0.4m deployment

FTS performance (main microlensing telescope)• Still room for improvement, engineering trip planned

Data display problems• Target misidentification by the pipeline, incorrect lightcurves

(you may have noticed the huge error bars on some RoboNet-II data on ARTEMiS plots)

“wouldn’t it be nice…”

Agree on a common data format • so that teams can exchange data efficiently

Associate data points on graphs with statistics on images • Information readily accessible

Fit binary events automatically• with preliminary models displayed “live”

Websites

http://robonet.lcogt.net/ (RoboNet-II homepage)

http://lcogt.net/ (LCOGT website)

http://microlensing.lcogt.net/ (microlensing discussion forum)

Fin

Other event examples

KB08284

FTS image quality

2007 problems: bipolar images, bad tracking…

FTS image quality

2008 (on a good night)