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Being the most sensitive single dish radio telescope. It was completed and put into use in September 2016. Its innovative engineering concept and design pave a new road to realize a huge single dish in the most effective way. The idea of sitting a large spherical dish in a karst depression is rooted in Arecibo telescope. FAST is an Arecibo-type antenna with three outstanding aspects: the karst depression used as the site, which is large to host the 500-meter telescope and deep to allow a zenith angle of 40 degrees; the active main reflector correcting for spherical aberration on the ground to achieve a full polarization and a wide band without involving complex feed systems; and the light-weight feed cabin driven by cables and servomechanism plus a parallel robot as a secondary adjustable system to move with high precision. The common feature of the latter two innovations is the transformation of large scale rigid structures into large scale flexible structures. To realize precise real-time control, the challenge of measurement and control technology is very challenging. This review intends to introduce the implementation methods, the recent progress, results, problems and future development of FAST measurement and control. |
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