Imaging and other optical systems in the physical sciences, medicine and a variety of other fields are increasingly becoming more complex, and frequently now include moveable internal optics and multiple reconfigurable beam paths.  At the same time, these instruments have very tight alignment tolerances, while often operating in environments with multiple disturbance sources. Finally, these systems are expected to operate autonomously, with minimal human intervention.

 

Using astronomical instrumentation as a motivating example, I will describe a variety of techniques being used to achieve this type of performance.  In particular, I will discuss the Gemini Planet Imager - a dedicated facility instrument at the Gemini South Observatory used for searching for extrasolar planets, and featuring an extreme adaptive optics system, a reconfigurable diffraction control system, and an integral field spectrograph science instrument.  I will also discuss new research from my lab on the limits of the capabilities of focal-plane sensing for alignment of refractive optics.