Multiple rooks of chess - a generic integral field unit deployment technique

TL;DR

The paper introduces the Multiple Rooks of Chess (MRC) technique for rapid, collision-free deployment of multiple integral field spectrographs, optimizing reconfiguration time and target acquisition efficiency.

Contribution

It presents a novel geometric and algorithmic approach for deploying multiple IFUs efficiently, with proven effectiveness through extensive simulations.

Findings

Reconfiguration time is up to 25 seconds for a 180 mm focal plane.

The MRC method is collision-free and scalable with target density.

Compared to existing methods, MRC offers better sky coverage and flexibility.

Abstract

A new field re-configuration technique, Multiple Rooks of Chess (MRC), for multiple deployable Integral Field Spectrographs has been developed. The method involves mechanical geometry as well as an optimized deployment algorithm. The geometry is found to be simple for mechanical implementation. The algorithm initially assigns the IFUs to the target objects and then devises the movement sequence based on the current and the desired IFU positions. The reconfiguration time using the suitable actuators which runs at 20 cm/s is found to be a maximum of 25 seconds for the circular DOTIFS focal plane (180 mm diameter). The Geometry Algorithm Combination (GAC) has been tested on several million mock target configurations with object-to-IFU ({\tau} ) ratio varying from 0.25 to 16. The MRC method is found to-be efficient in target acquisition in terms of field revisit and deployment time without any collision or entanglement of the fiber bundles. The efficiency of the technique does not get affected by the increase in number density of target objects. The technique is compared with other available methods based on sky coverage, flexibility and overhead time. The proposed geometry and algorithm combination is found to have an advantage in all of the aspects.