Three years of experience with the STELLA robotic observatory

TL;DR

This paper discusses three years of operational experience with the STELLA robotic observatory, highlighting the software solutions implemented for autonomous operation and error handling.

Contribution

It presents the strategies and algorithms developed to enable fully autonomous operation of the STELLA telescopes over three years.

Findings

High operational uptime achieved

Effective error handling algorithms implemented

Robust autonomous control demonstrated

Abstract

Since May 2006, the two STELLA robotic telescopes at the Izana observatory in Tenerife, Spain, delivered an almost uninterrupted stream of scientific data. To achieve such a high level of autonomous operation, the replacement of all troubleshooting skills of a regular observer in software was required. Care must be taken on error handling issues and on robustness of the algorithms used. In the current paper, we summarize the approaches we followed in the STELLA observatory.