Description
The objective of this activity is to develop and test a software platform acting as an abstraction layer between the optical groundstation software client and the various software and hardware modules and their interfaces. Software implementation to be agnostic to operating systems and shall be based on object-oriented techniques to enable creation of a generic optical ground station model prior to programming. Testing shall and use commercially available computer platforms and shall take place in a pre-operational environment. Targeted Improvements: A tenfold increase in the operational readiness of optical/quantum communication ground stations, whilst future proofing its modularity and scalability. Description: An optical ground station (OGS) can be modelled as an assortment of different optical hardware (HW) and software (SW) modules and their interfaces, e.g., dome, telescope, lenses, mirrors, imaging devices, lasers, detectors etc. All parts of an OGS shall be ideally controlled by a single computer. Nevertheless, universal connectivity between apps/programmes and the equipment they need to control is not obvious. A standardised interface applicable to a range of equipment used in OGSs does not exist today. An object-model SW platform hosting drivers for the various parts of an OGS would allow devices and equipment from different vendors and applications to communicate efficiently with each other. This shall enable the efficient management and control of OGS resources by a single computer, even with several computers sharing partial access. The envisaged SW abstraction platform between the OGS client and the various modules and their interfaces shall remove any HW dependency in the client, making thus OGSs more modular, compatible with more devices, easier maintainable, and further testable. The special object that converts the interface of one object so that another object can understand is called adapter. The adapter is a structural design pattern that allows objects with incompatible interfaces to collaborate. Relevant technologies that act as a bridge between SW clients and HW devices are already used widely to control astronomical equipment with great success. The ASCOM initiative since 1997 (an abbreviation for Astronomy Common Object Model) is eliminating the need to write special code for each astronomy device. The INDI library since 2003, an open-source SW to control astronomical equipment, is based on the Instrument Neutral Distributed Interface (INDI) protocol and acts as a bridge between SW clients and HW devices. Both initiatives are community driven and supported by professionals and amateurs. This activity shall develop and test a SW platform that will act as an abstraction layer between the OGS SW client and the various SW and HW modules and their interfaces. The target platform shall hide the implementation details and provide the user only with the information on what the object does as part of the OGS, instead of how it does it. The property of abstraction is inherent to object-oriented programming languages. Therefore, implementation shall be based on object-oriented techniques. The solution shall support operation across different computer operational systems, including MacOS, Linux and Windows. The activity shall provide means to validate the SW platform using commercially available computer platforms. Testing shall take place in a pre-operational environment. Procurement Policy: C(1) = Activity restricted to non-prime contractors (incl. SMEs). For additional information please go to: http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Business_with_ESA/Small_and_Medium_Sized_En…