Control software for the AO modules of the AOF project

The Adaptive Optics Facility (AOF) is one of the most important ESO projects developed for the VLT programme in the last years. The AOF, currently still under commissioning, brings built-in AO capabilities (GLAO and LTAO) to one of the VLT 8m Telescopes (Yepun) that is now equipped with a deformable secondary mirror (DSM), four lasers guide stars (4LGSF) and two AO modules: GRAAL for the HAWK-I infrared imager and GALACSI for the MUSE 3D spectrograph. This paper describes the main aspects of the software responsible for the control and monitor of the two AO modules, as well as for the coordination of subsystems like the instruments and the telescope. Furthermore details of the strategy followed to minimize the impact on configuration control associated to several commissioning periods interleaved with normal operations will be given. The control software package consist of a set of modules based on the VLT Instrumentation Framework and on the VLT platform for AO Real-Time Applications (SPARTA). We will present the software and control design choices that have contributed to the successful commissioning and science verification of GALACSI Wide Field Mode (WFM) and the first verifications of GRAAL tip/tilt free mode covering the control of challenging devices such as the GRAAL Corotator or the GALACSI visible Field Selector together with the innovative and flexible implementation of the AO acquisition sequence and its seamless integration to the instrument observations, the handling of secondary loops and the development of health-check and commissioning scripts (templates) that automated the verification of the different observing modes.