Lucas is from Ewa Beach, and is graduating from UH Manoa
this semester with a B.S in Computer Science and a Minor in
Philosophy. Lucas is interested in Robotics, programming and
computer vision. In the future he would like to develop
autonomous robotic systems, and help develop solutions to
real-world problems using his expertise in robotics. In his free
time, Lucas enjoys reading science-fiction and philosophy,
playing card games, and listening to the band Pavement.
Home Island: Oahu
High School:
Institution when accepted: UH Manoa
Site: University of California Observatories (UCO). Santa Cruz, CA
Mentors: Kyle Westfall
Project title: The FOBOS Robotic Positioner User Interface: Enabling Development, Research, and Demonstration
Project Abstract:
FOBOS (Fiber-Optic Broadband Optical Spectrograph) is a new instrument in development for Keck.
The system relies on an array of optical fibers to collect light from celestial sources. The optics are
precisely positioned in the telescope focal plane via mechanical robots, which consist of two arms
joined together and have 360 degrees of rotation each. In this project, we have built a Graphical
User Interface (GUI) to increase the efficiency of maneuvering the positioners, beyond the
pre-existing low-level commands issued via a terminal. The main areas of improvement include
adding a visual of the positioners’ movement, enabling the movement of the positioners by both
mouse clicks and manual coordinate entry, and incorporating a live status view of each positioner.
We have also developed a metrology system to verify that the positioners successfully acquired their
target position, catching cases where a positioner’s real-world location has drifted from what the
software believes. On the hardware side, the system runs a Raspberry Pi 5 as a camera and
hardware bridge, streaming processed frames to the host GUI over WebSocket, with positioner
commands sent to a CAN bus device on the network. This architecture allows the GUI to be operated
largely remotely, which lets us demonstrate the capabilities of these robots to collaborators outside
the lab without requiring physical access to the instrument.