Heterogeneous Target Assignment to Robotic Fiber Positioner Systems

The target assignment methods applied to robotic fiber positioners are only applicable to homogeneous sets of targets to be observed. However, different batches of robotic fiber positioners available at the focal plane of a telescope can be simultaneously used in various applications. Those applications may be intrinsically different, say, some may seek astronomical observations, whereas the others may focus on space operations such as space debris detection. The current target assignment algorithms cannot handle these heterogeneous scenarios. This paper proposes an efficient multilinear algorithm to assign robotic fiber positioners to heterogeneous targets. We classify the targets based on their required exposure times. We also take the priority of observations compared to other operations into account during an assignment processes. Our algorithm assigns a bundle of robotic positioners to each dynamic target to efficiently detect it. We finally illustrate our algorithm’s application using a simulated example.