Software

The Software for the RAPTOR project is very new and innovative. It is the heart of the closed-loop system consisting of both hardware and software. It can successfully control and monitor the night sky, responding to self-actuated and outside alerts. It has the capability of removing false positives from the observations through a variety of hardware and software methods (see later).

All software for the RAPTOR operates using the Linux OS. Development occurred and is occurring on a variety of platforms within the Linux environment and then the software is merged and tested for consistency prior to loading to the RAPTOR system.

The Software consists of three main subsystems. the first is the fast real-time image pipeline. This provides basic image calibration, registration and rudimentary analysis with false positive rejection in under 20 seconds. The second system is the data acquisition and observatory control software. This is an integrated set of system control daemons running on multiple computer systems. The final system is the alert operations network (TALON) that controls inter-telescope communication and final image analysis and alert triggering.

Currently Status:

Image Pipeline                       operational

Control System Software         operational

TALONS                                operational

Software documents:

Pipe Line:

Alert Operations:

TALONS: Telescope Alert Operations Network System. A grid based observation and alert system following Distributed Sensor Network design paradigms. Designed, implemented and in operation at LANL. Click on the link for the paper.

More Information on TALONS at the the Thinking Telescope Website