Speaker
Description
We present a new software package for interfacing FitPix and USB Lite compatible Timepix readout electronics using the Robot Operating System (ROS) [1]. ROS is a widely adopted middleware for integration of sensors, processing algorithms and logic to autonomous systems such as robots, unmanned helicopters, and robotic payloads. Thanks to ROS, Timepix detectors can be set for automated experiments on platforms spanning from traditional desktop computers to small ARM devices such as Raspberry Pi and Odroid. Acquisition and detector settings can be controlled in Linux shell allowing native deployment on screen-less devices. Using ROS networking capabilities, the measured data such as captured frames and detector controls can be transmitted via a network, which allows building distributed systems. The proposed software is a lightweight package, easily connectable to existing visualization, logging, and processing software in ROS. It offers simple bindings to custom Python and C++ programs for real-time control of the acquisition or processing of the captured frames. Rospix was deployed on a Timepix equipped payload on board a NASA suborbital rocket, which was successfully launched on April 4, 2018, from Kwajalein Atoll by Pennsylvania State University. The REX (Rocket Experiment) utilized Odroix-XU4 computers recording data from two Timepix detectors, which served as focal plane imagers for an onboard 2-dimensional X-ray telescope for the observation in open space of stellar X-Ray objects such as the Vela supernova remnant.
We release Rospix to the community using the GitHub platform [2] and plan to provide ROS modules for cluster analysis and real-time feedback-based acquisition control. Research carried out in frame of the Medipix collaboration through the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, CTU in Prague.
[1] M. Quigley, K. Conley, B. Gerkey, J. Faust, T. Foote, J. Leibs, R. Wheeler, AY. Ng, "ROS: an open-source Robot Operating System", ICRA workshop on open source software 2009 May 12 (Vol. 3, No. 3.2, p. 5).
[2] T. Baca, "Rospix on GitHub", accessed 09/04/20018, URL: https://github.com/klaxalk/rospix
