Concepts for remote control of VLBI-telescopes and first experiences at Wettzell

Alexander Neidhardt1, Martin Ettl1,
 Hayo Hase2, Matthias Mühlbauer2, Christian Plötz2,
 Walter Alef3, Helge Rottmann3,
 Sergio Sobarzo4, Cristian Herrera4

1 Forschungseinrichtung Satellitengeodäsie, Technische Universität München,
Geodätisches Observatorium Wettzell, Germany
2 Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie, Geodätisches Observatorium Wettzell, Germany
3 Max Planck Institut für Radioastronomie Bonn, Germany
4 Universidad de Concepción, Chile

Oral presentation

The requirements for VLBI systems increase. A higher observation density, real-time access for more variable schedules, highly automated observations and remote control of complete sites for example require new add-ons for the controlling software. To improve this situation (semi-) autonomous, remote accessible control systems will become more and more reality and offer reliable, safe and modular structures from upper controlling layers down to the basic single components. An extension to the current fieldsystem with remotely accessible, autonomous process cells is the first approach at the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell. It set up on the specially designed and at Wettzell developed middleware generator “idl2rpc.pl” to generate the remote C++- interfaces. Modern graphical user interfaces in combination with a first adapter to the fieldsystem as extension show the possibilities to control radiotelescopes remotely. Within first successful remote control and attendance tests with regular observations of the telescopes at O’Higgins, Concepción and Wettzell the already implemented extensions were already tested in the global communication network.