RoboNet

RoboNet-1.0 was a prototype global network of UK-built 2-metre <a href="/facts/Robotic_telescope/kToUJdWx">robotic telescopes</a>, the largest of their kind in the world, comprising the <a href="/facts/Liverpool_Telescope/S3QeQQzx">Liverpool Telescope</a> on La Palma (Canary Islands), the <a href="/facts/Faulkes_Telescope_North/cNJRwzsh">Faulkes Telescope North</a> on Maui (Hawaii), and the <a href="/facts/Faulkes_Telescope_South/WvQHFTsz">Faulkes Telescope South</a> in Australia, managed by a consortium of ten UK universities under the lead of <a href="/facts/Liverpool_John_Moores_University/g5uRVwfv">Liverpool John Moores University</a>. For the technological aims of integrating a global network to act effectively as a single instrument, and maximizing the scientific return by applying the newest developments in <a href="/facts/E-Science/bVr55aUe">e-Science</a>, RoboNet adopted the intelligent-agent architecture devised and maintained by the <a href="/facts/ESTAR_project/PNJWnq1K">eSTAR project</a>.
With the flexible scheduling and short response time of robotic telescopes being ideal for <a href="/facts/Time-domain_astronomy/RbwWFze6">time-domain astronomy</a>, RoboNet-1.0 had two major science goals that critically depend on these requirements: the determination of origin and nature of <a href="/facts/Gamma-ray_bursts/oRRU6Fhn">gamma-ray bursts</a>, and the detection of cool <a href="/facts/Extra-solar_planets/zjfmqfUf">extra-solar planets</a> by means of <a href="/facts/Gravitational_microlensing/JL0fXQRC">gravitational microlensing</a>.
Apart from their science use, the telescopes forming the RoboNet-1.0 have also been made available for two educational programmes, the <a href="/facts/Faulkes_Telescope_Project/k1046Egq">Faulkes Telescope Project</a> and the <a href="/facts/National_Schools_Observatory/S3QeQQzx">National Schools‘ Observatory</a>.
The RoboNet microlensing programme, led by the <a href="/facts/University_of_St_Andrews/IwXjmljw">University of St Andrews</a>, engages in a common campaign with the <a href="/facts/Probing_Lensing_Anomalies_Network/8UJBufJS">PLANET</a> collaboration since 2005.
With the official end of RoboNet-1.0 in October 2007, and the earlier acquisition of the two <a href="/facts/Faulkes_Telescopes/k1046Egq">Faulkes Telescopes</a> by <a href="/facts/Las_Cumbres_Observatory_Global_Telescope/9Te8k3mW">Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network</a>, the microlensing programme is carried on as RoboNet-II. Starting in 2008, RoboNet-II has been using the expert system for microlensing anomaly detection
that is being provided by the Automated Robotic Terrestrial Exoplanet Microlensing Search (ARTEMiS). RoboNet-II aims at obtaining a first census of cool terrestrial <a href="/facts/Exoplanet/zjfmqfUf">exoplanets</a>.

RoboNet open-in-new

RoboNet