Development of control softwares for the SRAO 6-meter telescope based on PCs running linux

We have developed a control system for the Seoul Radio AstronomyObservatory (SRAO) 6-meter telescope operating in the 85-115 GHzfrequency range. Four PCs running the Linux operating system control sourcetracking, take data, execute observations and handle userinterface.The control system utilizes a modular and multiprocessingstructure to facilitate easy upgrading and troubleshooting. Communication between the processes relies on the interprocesscommunication (IPC) resources on Linux such as shared memory,message queues, and TCP/IP sockets. Communication between PCs is made via an Ethernet link. We also use digital I/O lines for some status signals whichrequire a short delay.The control system supports scheduling observations, updatesobservation logs automatically and also supports graphical userinterfaces. These all makes the operation easy.By using a commercially available motion control card with anembedded microcomputer for antenna control, we achieved atracking accuracy to better than 1 arcsec. © 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.