Development of instrumentation for large spectroscopic surveys.

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We have a valuable experience on precision fiber positioning mechanisms. We have built, in collaboration with the spanish company AVS, a 29-mm pitch fiber positioner for the GTC 10m telescope and a 12-mm pitch robot for BigBOSS. Recently,  we have built a smaller 10.4-mm pitch prototype for DESI  in collaboration with EPFL-Lausanne and the companies MPS, Precistep and AVS. We also contribute to the DESI project with the design, construction and verification of the focal plate, including  a demonstrator. Read more>

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The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument  (DESI) is a massively multiplexed fiber- fed spectrograph that will make the next major advance in dark energy in the timeframe 2018-2022. On the Mayall telescope, DESI will obtain spectra and redshifts for millions of galaxies and cuasars with 5,000 fiber robot postioners.