Wide field astronomy with Starbug 1

Starbug is a new concept for a robotic positioning system able to deploy many payloads, such as pickoff optics, optical fibres, integral field units over the focal surface of a telescope. Aimed at addressing some of the weakness of current positioning systems, Starbug employs micro-robotic actuators to independently and simultaneously position multiple small payloads accurately on an arbitrarily large field plate. Targeted at offering a cost-effective positioning system for both optical and infrared instrumentation it is being developed to; operate in cryogenic environments, position to micron level resolution, simultaneous move arbitrary numbers of payloads and included micro-tracking for minor positional adjustments that could compensate for differential atmospheric refraction effects and instrument flexure.