The telescope control system supervisory controller for the Thirty Meter Telescope

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project is a partnership between ACURA, AURA, Caltech, and the University of California. The Telescope Control System (TCS) for TMT is comprised of many subsystems. The TCS Supervisory Controller is responsible for pointing the telescope via an embedded pointing kernel, sequencing commands to the telescope systems, responding to errors and alarms and interacting with the telescope safety system. This paper describes the conceptual design for the Supervisory Controller and addresses the integration with the other TMT software systems. The requirements are discussed in terms of producing a functional, usable, safe, reliable and maintainable system.