Development status of the SOXS instrument control software

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development and current status of the SOXS instrument control software for ESO-NTT, highlighting its architecture, supported components, and ongoing support for two specialized piezoelectric devices.

Contribution

It presents the architecture and development progress of the SOXS instrument control software, including support for two novel piezoelectric devices.

Findings

Software architecture based on VLT2019 is finalized.

Code development supports simulation of observation procedures.

Support for two specialized piezoelectric devices is underway.

Abstract

SOXS (Son Of X-Shooter) is a forthcoming instrument for ESO-NTT, mainly dedicated to the spectroscopic study of transient events and is currently starting the AIT (Assembly, Integration, and Test) phase. It foresees a visible spectrograph, a near-Infrared (NIR) spectrograph, and an acquisition camera for light imaging and secondary guiding. The optimal setup and the monitoring of SOXS are carried out with a set of software-controlled motorized components and sensors. The instrument control software (INS) also manages the observation and calibration procedures, as well as maintenance and self-test operations. The architecture of INS, based on the latest release of the VLT Software (VLT2019), has been frozen; the code development is in an advanced state for what concerns supported components and observation procedures, which run in simulation. In this proceeding we present the INS current status, focusing in particular on the ongoing efforts in the support of two non-standard, "special" devices. The first special device is the piezoelectric slit exchanger for the NIR spectrograph; the second special device is the piezoelectric tip-tilt corrector used for active compensation of mechanical flexures of the instrument.