NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
SCDU Testbed Automated In-Situ Alignment, Data Acquisition and AnalysisIn the course of fulfilling its mandate, the Spectral Calibration Development Unit (SCDU) testbed for SIM-Lite produces copious amounts of raw data. To effectively spend time attempting to understand the science driving the data, the team devised computerized automations to limit the time spent bringing the testbed to a healthy state and commanding it, and instead focus on analyzing the processed results. We developed a multi-layered scripting language that emphasized the scientific experiments we conducted, which drastically shortened our experiment scripts, improved their readability, and all-but-eliminated testbed operator errors. In addition to scientific experiment functions, we also developed a set of automated alignments that bring the testbed up to a well-aligned state with little more than the push of a button. These scripts were written in the scripting language, and in Matlab via an interface library, allowing all members of the team to augment the existing scripting language with complex analysis scripts. To keep track of these results, we created an easily-parseable state log in which we logged both the state of the testbed and relevant metadata. Finally, we designed a distributed processing system that allowed us to farm lengthy analyses to a collection of client computers which reported their results in a central log. Since these logs were parseable, we wrote query scripts that gave us an effortless way to compare results collected under different conditions. This paper serves as a case-study, detailing the motivating requirements for the decisions we made and explaining the implementation process.
Document ID
20100031716
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Werne, Thomas A.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Wehmeier, Udo J.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Wu, Janet P.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
An, Xin
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Goullioud, Renaud
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Nemati, Bijan
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Shao, Michael
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Shen, Tsae-Pyng J.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Wang, Xu
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Weilert, Mark A.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Zhai, Chengxing
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
June 27, 2010
Subject Category
Mathematical And Computer Sciences (General)
Meeting Information
Meeting: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation
Location: San Diego, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: June 27, 2010
Sponsors: International Society for Optical Engineering
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Automation
Space Interferometry Mission SIM-Lite
Distributed Processing
Spectral Calibration Development Unit (SCDU)
Automated Analysis

Available Downloads

There are no available downloads for this record.
No Preview Available