Bibcode
Jiménez, A.; Morante, E.; Viera, T.; Núñez, M.; Reyes, M.
Bibliographical reference
Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III. Edited by Stepp, Larry M.; Gilmozzi, Roberto; Hall, Helen J. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 7733, pp. 773354-773354-14 (2010).
Advertised on:
7
2010
Citations
0
Refereed citations
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Description
European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) based in 984 primary mirror
segments achieving required optical performance; they must position
relatively to adjacent segments with relative nanometer accuracy. CESA
designed M1 Position Actuators (PACT) to comply with demanding
performance requirements of EELT. Three PACT are located under each
segment controlling three out of the plane degrees of freedom (tip,
tilt, piston). To achieve a high linear accuracy in long operational
displacements, PACT uses two stages in series. First stage based on
Voice Coil Actuator (VCA) to achieve high accuracies in very short
travel ranges, while second stage based on Brushless DC Motor (BLDC)
provides large stroke ranges and allows positioning the first stage
closer to the demanded position. A BLDC motor is used achieving a
continuous smoothly movement compared to sudden jumps of a stepper. A
gear box attached to the motor allows a high reduction of power
consumption and provides a great challenge for sizing. PACT space
envelope was reduced by means of two flat springs fixed to VCA. Its main
characteristic is a low linear axial stiffness. To achieve best
performance for PACT, sensors have been included in both stages. A
rotary encoder is included in BLDC stage to close position/velocity
control loop. An incremental optical encoder measures PACT travel range
with relative nanometer accuracy and used to close the position loop of
the whole actuator movement. For this purpose, four different optical
sensors with different gratings will be evaluated. Control strategy show
different internal closed loops that work together to achieve required
performance.