TY - CONF AU - Yilmaz, U.Y. AU - Android, M.G.P.T. AU - de Beer, M.J.A. ED - Schaa, Volker RW ED - Götz, Andy ED - Venter, Johan ED - White, Karen ED - Robichon, Marie ED - Rowland, Vivienne TI - Driving Behavioural Change of Software Developers in a Global Organisation Assisted by a Paranoid Android J2 - Proc. of ICALEPCS2023, Cape Town, South Africa, 09-13 October 2023 CY - Cape Town, South Africa T2 - International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems T3 - 19 LA - english AB - Ensuring code quality standards at the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) is of utmost importance, as the project spans multiple nations and encompasses a wide range of software products delivered by developers from around the world. To improve code quality and meet certain open-source software prerequisites for a wider collaboration, the SKAO employs the use of a chatbot that provides witty, direct and qualified comments with detailed documentation that guide developers in improving their coding practices. The bot is modelled after a famous character albeit a depressed one, creating a relatable personality for developers. This has resulted in an increase in code quality and faster turnaround times. The bot has not only helped developers adhere to code standards but also fostered a culture of continuous improvement with an engaging and enjoyable process. Here we present the success story of the bot and how a chatbot can drive behavioural change within a global organisation and help DevOps teams to improve developer performance and agility through an innovative and engaging approach to code reviews. PB - JACoW Publishing CP - Geneva, Switzerland SP - 25 EP - 29 KW - software KW - GUI KW - feedback KW - MMI KW - operation DA - 2024/02 PY - 2024 SN - 2226-0358 SN - 978-3-95450-238-7 DO - doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-MO2BCO01 UR - https://jacow.org/icalepcs2023/papers/mo2bco01.pdf ER - TY - CONF AU - Dodia, I.A. ED - Schaa, Volker RW ED - Götz, Andy ED - Venter, Johan ED - White, Karen ED - Robichon, Marie ED - Rowland, Vivienne TI - Modelling and Control of a MeerKAT Antenna J2 - Proc. of ICALEPCS2023, Cape Town, South Africa, 09-13 October 2023 CY - Cape Town, South Africa T2 - International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems T3 - 19 LA - english AB - This paper presents a comprehensive approach to modeling for control system design for a MeerKAT antenna. It focuses on dynamic modeling using time and frequency domain techniques, and lays the foundation for the design of a control system to meet the telescope’s stringent pointing and tracking requirements. The paper scope includes rigid body modelling of the antenna, system identification to obtain model parameters, and building a system model in Simulink. The Simulink model allows us to compare model performance with the measured antenna pointing, under various environmental conditions. The paper also integrates models for pointing disturbances, such as wind and friction. The integrated model is compared to the existing control setup. Wind disturbance plays a significant role in the pointing performance of the antenna, therefore the focus is placed on developing an appropriate wind model. This research will conclude by providing a well-documented, systematic control system design that is owned by SARAO and can be implemented to improve the pointing performance of the telescope. PB - JACoW Publishing CP - Geneva, Switzerland SP - 131 EP - 137 KW - controls KW - target KW - experiment KW - site KW - factory DA - 2024/02 PY - 2024 SN - 2226-0358 SN - 978-3-95450-238-7 DO - doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-MO3AO04 UR - https://jacow.org/icalepcs2023/papers/mo3ao04.pdf ER - TY - CONF AU - Mnisi, S.A. ED - Schaa, Volker RW ED - Götz, Andy ED - Venter, Johan ED - White, Karen ED - Robichon, Marie ED - Rowland, Vivienne TI - Systems Modelling, AI/ML Algorithms Applied to Control Systems J2 - Proc. of ICALEPCS2023, Cape Town, South Africa, 09-13 October 2023 CY - Cape Town, South Africa T2 - International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems T3 - 19 LA - english AB - The 64 receptor (with 20 more being built) radio telescope in the Karoo, South Africa, comprises a large number of devices and components connected to the Control-and-Monitoring (CAM) system via the Karoo Array Telescope Communication Protocol (KATCP). KATCP is used extensively for internal communications between CAM components and other subsystems. A KATCP interface exposes requests and sensors; sampling strategies are set on sensors, ranging from several updates per second to infrequent on-change updates. The sensor samples are of different types, from small integers to text fields. The samples and associated timestamps are permanently stored and made available for scientists, engineers and operators to query and analyze. This is a presentation on how to apply Machine Learning tools which utilize data-driven algorithms and statistical models to analyze sensor data sets and then draw inferences from identified patterns or make predictions based on them. The algorithms learn from the sensor data as they run against it, unlike traditional rules-based analytics systems that follow explicit instructions. Since this involves data preprocessing, we will go through how the MeerKAT telescope data storage infrastructure (called Katstore) manages the voluminous variety, velocity and volume of this data. PB - JACoW Publishing CP - Geneva, Switzerland SP - 257 EP - 261 KW - monitoring KW - hardware KW - software KW - controls KW - software-component DA - 2024/02 PY - 2024 SN - 2226-0358 SN - 978-3-95450-238-7 DO - doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-TU1BCO03 UR - https://jacow.org/icalepcs2023/papers/tu1bco03.pdf ER - TY - CONF AU - Ngcebetsha, B. ED - Schaa, Volker RW ED - Götz, Andy ED - Venter, Johan ED - White, Karen ED - Robichon, Marie ED - Rowland, Vivienne TI - Implementation of External Delay Calculator to MeerKAT J2 - Proc. of ICALEPCS2023, Cape Town, South Africa, 09-13 October 2023 CY - Cape Town, South Africa T2 - International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems T3 - 19 LA - english AB - The MeerKAT is an interferometric array made up of 64 dishes that operate as a unit. The very first corrections that must be made to the incoming signal is that of geometric and cable length delays, collectively called "delays". In summary, this is the adjustment of the time of arrival of the signal at the correlator from all 64 antennas, to operate as one instrument. The signal must be recorded at the same time. The MeerKAT correlator has inbuilt a delay correction mechanism, which records and applies these corrections during observation. In this paper we describe how this solution was evolved when ‘katpoint‘(the underlying library to which the delay corrections dependend) had a change in dependencies itself. There were two major changes to ‘katpoint‘ 1) changing from ‘ephem‘ to ‘astropy‘ for time and location calculations of a telescope and celestial bodies, and 2) the move from python2 to python3. Most of the Control and Monitoring(CAM) codebase was still using python2 at the time. Our team had the mamoth task of porting all the codebase from ‘py2‘ to ‘py3‘. This presented unexpected issues, particularly in our case - as we wanted to retain Python2 - Python3 backward compatibility. In this paper we explore the challenges faced when ‘katpoint‘ started to implement ‘astropy‘ which is implemented in Python3 whist the rest of our code was still in Python2. The technical benefit of this improvement was an improvement in the astrometry for delay calculations which will improve the MeerKAT science images. PB - JACoW Publishing CP - Geneva, Switzerland SP - 658 EP - 660 KW - target KW - controls KW - interface KW - software KW - ion-effects DA - 2024/02 PY - 2024 SN - 2226-0358 SN - 978-3-95450-238-7 DO - doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-TUPDP068 UR - https://jacow.org/icalepcs2023/papers/tupdp068.pdf ER - TY - CONF AU - Schwartz, R.L. AU - Ebrahim, R.E. AU - Pretorius, P.J. ED - Schaa, Volker RW ED - Götz, Andy ED - Venter, Johan ED - White, Karen ED - Robichon, Marie ED - Rowland, Vivienne TI - AVN Radio Telescope Conversion Software Systems J2 - Proc. of ICALEPCS2023, Cape Town, South Africa, 09-13 October 2023 CY - Cape Town, South Africa T2 - International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems T3 - 19 LA - english AB - The African VLBI Network (AVN) is a proposed network of Radio Telescopes involving 8 partner countries across the African continent. The AVN project aims to convert redundant satellite data communications ground stations, where viable, to Radio Telescopes. One of the main objectives of AVN is human capital development in Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics (STEM) with regards to radio astronomy in SKA (Square Kilometer Array) African Partner countries. This paper will outline the software systems used for control and monitoring of a single radio telescope. The control and monitoring software consists of the User Interface, Antenna Control System, Receiver Control System and monitoring of all proprietary and off-the-shelf (OTS) components. All proprietary and OTS interfaces are converted to the open protocol (KATCP). PB - JACoW Publishing CP - Geneva, Switzerland SP - 661 EP - 665 KW - controls KW - software KW - interface KW - monitoring KW - network DA - 2024/02 PY - 2024 SN - 2226-0358 SN - 978-3-95450-238-7 DO - doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-TUPDP069 UR - https://jacow.org/icalepcs2023/papers/tupdp069.pdf ER - TY - CONF AU - Schwartz, R.L. AU - Baloyi, T.B. AU - Sithole, S.S. ED - Schaa, Volker RW ED - Götz, Andy ED - Venter, Johan ED - White, Karen ED - Robichon, Marie ED - Rowland, Vivienne TI - Open Time Proposal Submission System for the MeerKAT Radio Telescope J2 - Proc. of ICALEPCS2023, Cape Town, South Africa, 09-13 October 2023 CY - Cape Town, South Africa T2 - International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems T3 - 19 LA - english AB - Through periodic Call for Proposals, the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), allocates time on the MeerKAT Radio Telescope to the international community for the purpose of maximizing the scientific impact of the telescope, while contributing to South African scientific leadership and human capital development. Proposals are submitted through the proposal submission system, followed by a stringent review process where they are graded based on certain criteria. Time on the telescope is then allocated based on the grade and rank achieved. This paper outlines the details of the Open Time proposal submission and review process, and the design and implementation of the software used to grade the proposals and allocate the time on the MeerKAT Radio Telescope. PB - JACoW Publishing CP - Geneva, Switzerland SP - 666 EP - 668 KW - operation KW - instrumentation KW - software KW - site KW - data-management DA - 2024/02 PY - 2024 SN - 2226-0358 SN - 978-3-95450-238-7 DO - doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-TUPDP070 UR - https://jacow.org/icalepcs2023/papers/tupdp070.pdf ER - TY - CONF AU - Williams, L.P. AU - Schwartz, R.L. ED - Schaa, Volker RW ED - Götz, Andy ED - Venter, Johan ED - White, Karen ED - Robichon, Marie ED - Rowland, Vivienne TI - Overview of Observation Preparation and Scheduling on the MeerKAT Radio Telescope J2 - Proc. of ICALEPCS2023, Cape Town, South Africa, 09-13 October 2023 CY - Cape Town, South Africa T2 - International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems T3 - 19 LA - english AB - The MeerKAT radio telescope performs a wide variety of scientific observations. Observation durations range from a few minutes, to many hours, and may form part of observing campaigns that span many weeks. Static observation requirements, such as resources or array configuration, may be determined and verified months in advance. Other requirements however, such as atmospheric conditions, can only be verified hours before the planned observation event. This wide variety of configuration, scheduling and control parameters are managed with features provided by the MeerKAT software. The short term scheduling functionality has expanded from simple queues to support for automatic scheduling (queuing). To support long term schedule planning, the MeerKAT telescope includes an Observation Panning Tool which provides configuration checking as well as dry-run environments that can interact with the production system. Observations are atomized to support simpler specification, facilitating machine learning projects and more flexibility in scheduling around engineering and maintenance events. This paper will provide an overview of observation specification, configuration, and scheduling on the MeerKAT telescope. The support for integration with engineering subsystems is also described. Engineering subsystems include User Supplied Equipment which are hardware and computing resources integrated to expand the MeerKAT telescope’s capabilities. PB - JACoW Publishing CP - Geneva, Switzerland SP - 669 EP - 672 KW - controls KW - operation KW - factory KW - MMI KW - real-time DA - 2024/02 PY - 2024 SN - 2226-0358 SN - 978-3-95450-238-7 DO - doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-TUPDP072 UR - https://jacow.org/icalepcs2023/papers/tupdp072.pdf ER - TY - CONF AU - van Tonder, V. ED - Schaa, Volker RW ED - Götz, Andy ED - Venter, Johan ED - White, Karen ED - Robichon, Marie ED - Rowland, Vivienne TI - CAN Monitoring Software for an Antenna Positioner Emulator J2 - Proc. of ICALEPCS2023, Cape Town, South Africa, 09-13 October 2023 CY - Cape Town, South Africa T2 - International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems T3 - 19 LA - english AB - The original Controller Area Network (CAN) protocol, was developed for control and monitoring within vehicular systems. It has since been expanded and today, the Open CAN bus protocol is a leading protocol used within servo-control systems for telescope positioning systems. Development of a CAN bus monitoring component is currently underway. This component forms part of a greater software package, designed for an Antenna Positioner Emulator (APE), which is under construction. The APE will mimic movement of a MeerKAT antenna, in both the azimuth and elevation axes, as well as the positioning of the receiver indexer. It will be fitted with the same servo-drives and controller hardware as MeerKAT, however there will be no main dish, sub-reflector, or receiver. The APE monitoring software will receive data from a variety of communication protocols used by different devices within the MeerKAT control system, these include: CAN, Profibus, EnDAT, Resolver and Hiperface data. The monitoring software will run on a BeagleBone Black (BBB) fitted with an ARM processor. Local and remote logging capabilities are provided along with a user interface to initiate the reception of data. The CAN component makes use of the standard SocketCAN driver which is shipped as part of the linux kernel. Initial laboratory tests have been conducted using a CAN system bus adapter that transmits previously captured telescope data. The bespoke CAN receiver hardware connects in-line on the CAN bus and produces the data to a BBB, where the monitoring software logs the data. PB - JACoW Publishing CP - Geneva, Switzerland SP - 673 EP - 675 KW - software KW - controls KW - monitoring KW - network KW - hardware DA - 2024/02 PY - 2024 SN - 2226-0358 SN - 978-3-95450-238-7 DO - doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-TUPDP073 UR - https://jacow.org/icalepcs2023/papers/tupdp073.pdf ER - TY - CONF AU - Linde, A.C. AU - Baloyi, X.P. AU - Dube, P. AU - Lekganyane, J.L. AU - Lethole, AM. AU - Mlipha, V. AU - Pretorius, P.J. AU - Silere, US. AU - Sithole, S.S. ED - Schaa, Volker RW ED - Götz, Andy ED - Venter, Johan ED - White, Karen ED - Robichon, Marie ED - Rowland, Vivienne TI - Components of a Scale Training Telescope for Radio Astronomy Training J2 - Proc. of ICALEPCS2023, Cape Town, South Africa, 09-13 October 2023 CY - Cape Town, South Africa T2 - International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems T3 - 19 LA - english AB - To establish the engineering and science background of radio astronomy in SKA African partner countries, a need was identified to develop a training telescope which would serve as a vehicle for demonstrating the principles. The Scale Training Telescope (STT) will be used as an interactive teaching tool for the basics of antenna structure and antenna control, both in the design, assembly and operation of the radio antenna. The antenna aims to work as closely to a real radio telescope antenna as possible. The STT allows students at various academic levels in different educational institutions the ability to access an antenna design that can be assembled and operated by the students. The paper will describe the mechanical, electrical and software elements of the STT. The mechanical elements range from the structural base to the rotating dish of the radio telescope antenna. The electrical elements incorporate the electromechanical components used to move the antenna as well as the wiring and powering of the antenna. The software is used to control the antenna system as well as collect, process and visualise the resulting data. A software-based user interface will allow the students to control and monitor the antenna system. The PLC-based (Programmable Logic Controller) control system facilitates the motion control of the antenna, in both the azimuth and elevation axes. PB - JACoW Publishing CP - Geneva, Switzerland SP - 933 EP - 937 KW - controls KW - GUI KW - interface KW - software KW - PLC DA - 2024/02 PY - 2024 SN - 2226-0358 SN - 978-3-95450-238-7 DO - doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-TUSDSC06 UR - https://jacow.org/icalepcs2023/papers/tusdsc06.pdf ER - TY - CONF AU - Ojur, B.A. AU - Devereux, D. AU - Twum, S.N. AU - Venter, A.J. AU - Vrcic, S. ED - Schaa, Volker RW ED - Götz, Andy ED - Venter, Johan ED - White, Karen ED - Robichon, Marie ED - Rowland, Vivienne TI - Asynchronous Execution of Tango Commands in the SKA Telescope Control System: An Alternative to the Tango Async Device J2 - Proc. of ICALEPCS2023, Cape Town, South Africa, 09-13 October 2023 CY - Cape Town, South Africa T2 - International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems T3 - 19 LA - english AB - Equipment controlled by the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Control System will have a TANGO interface for control and monitoring. Commands on TANGO device servers have a 3000 milliseconds window to complete their execution and return to the client. This timeout places a limitation on some commands used on SKA TANGO devices which take longer than the 3000 milliseconds window to complete; the threshold is more stricter in the SKA Control System (CS) Guidelines. Such a command, identified as a Long Running Command (LRC), needs to be executed asynchronously to circumvent the timeout. TANGO has support for an asynchronous device which allows commands to be executed slower than 3000 milliseconds by using a coroutine to put the task on an event loop. During the exploration of this, a decision was made to implement a custom approach in our base repository which all devices depend on. In this approach, every command annotated as ¿long running¿ is handed over to a thread to complete the task and its progress is tracked through attributes. These attributes report the queued commands along with their progress, status and results. The client is provided with a unique identifier which can be used to track the execution of the LRC and take further action based on the outcome of that command. LRCs can be aborted safely using a custom TANGO command. We present the reference design and implementation of the Long Running Commands for the SKA Controls System. PB - JACoW Publishing CP - Geneva, Switzerland SP - 1108 EP - 1114 KW - TANGO KW - controls KW - status KW - GUI KW - network DA - 2024/02 PY - 2024 SN - 2226-0358 SN - 978-3-95450-238-7 DO - doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-TH1BCO04 UR - https://jacow.org/icalepcs2023/papers/th1bco04.pdf ER - TY - CONF AU - Gatsi, T. AU - Baloyi, X.P. AU - Lekganyane, J.L. AU - Schwartz, R.L. ED - Schaa, Volker RW ED - Götz, Andy ED - Venter, Johan ED - White, Karen ED - Robichon, Marie ED - Rowland, Vivienne TI - ELK Stack Deployment with Ansible J2 - Proc. of ICALEPCS2023, Cape Town, South Africa, 09-13 October 2023 CY - Cape Town, South Africa T2 - International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems T3 - 19 LA - english AB - The 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope, constructed in South Africa, became the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere until integrated with the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). Our Control and Monitoring system for Radio Astronomy Project such as MeerKAT produces a lot of data and logs that require proper handling. Viewing and analysis to trace and track system issues and as well as investigate technical software issues require one to go back in time to look for event occurrence. We therefore deployed an ELK software stack ( Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash) using Ansible in order to have the capability to aggregate system process logs. We deploy the stack as a cluster comprising lxc containers running inside a Proxmox Virtual Environment using Ansible as a software deployment tool. Each container in the cluster performs cluster duties such as deciding where to place index shards and when to move them. Each container is a data node that makes up the heart of the cluster. We deploy the stack as a cluster for load balancing purposes. Logstash ingests,transforms and sends the data to the Kibana Graphical User Interface for visualization. Elasticsearch indexes, analyzes, and searches the ingested data into Kibana and our Operations Team and other system users can visualize and analyze these logs on the Kibana GUI frontend. PB - JACoW Publishing CP - Geneva, Switzerland SP - 1411 EP - 1414 KW - operation KW - software KW - controls KW - GUI KW - distributed DA - 2024/02 PY - 2024 SN - 2226-0358 SN - 978-3-95450-238-7 DO - doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-THPDP047 UR - https://jacow.org/icalepcs2023/papers/thpdp047.pdf ER - TY - CONF AU - Kukuma, Z. AU - Coetzer, G. AU - Kupa, R.S. AU - Schollar, C. ED - Schaa, Volker RW ED - Götz, Andy ED - Venter, Johan ED - White, Karen ED - Robichon, Marie ED - Rowland, Vivienne TI - SARAO Science Repository: Sustainable Use of MeerKAT Data J2 - Proc. of ICALEPCS2023, Cape Town, South Africa, 09-13 October 2023 CY - Cape Town, South Africa T2 - International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems T3 - 19 LA - english AB - The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) is excited to announce the forthcoming release of its digital repository for managing and preserving astronomical data. The repository, built using the DSpace platform, will allow researchers to catalogue and discover research data in a standardised way, while Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) through the Datacite service will ensure the unique identification and persistent citation of data. The data will be hosted on a Ceph archive, which provides reliable storage and efficient retrieval using the s3 protocol. We are looking forward to hosting science data from any scientist who has used SARAO instruments. Researchers will be able to apply to host their data on the SARAO digital repository service, which will be released in the coming month. This repository will serve as a critical resource for the astronomy community, providing easy access to valuable data for research and collaboration. With the increasing demand for digital preservation and data accessibility, we believe that the SARAO digital repository will set a standard for other astronomical institutions to follow. We are committed to ensuring that our data remains available and accessible for the long term, and we invite all interested researchers to participate in this exciting initiative. PB - JACoW Publishing CP - Geneva, Switzerland SP - 1415 EP - 1419 KW - software KW - database KW - interface KW - framework KW - data-management DA - 2024/02 PY - 2024 SN - 2226-0358 SN - 978-3-95450-238-7 DO - doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-THPDP048 UR - https://jacow.org/icalepcs2023/papers/thpdp048.pdf ER -