Evolving the METIS soft real-time control system out of the simulation environment

METIS, the Mid-Infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph is a first-generation ELT instrument scheduled to see first light in 2029. Its two main science modules are supported by an adaptive optics system featuring a pyramid sensor with 90x90 sub-apertures working in H- and K-band. The wavefront control concept for METIS’ single-conjugate adaptive optics relies on a synthetic calibration that uses a model of the telescope and instrument to generate the interaction and control matrices, as well as the final projection on a modal command vector. This concept is enforced owing to the absence of a calibration source in front of the ELT’s main deformable mirror. The core of the synthetic calibration functionality is the Command Matrix Optimiser module, which consists of several components providing models for various parts and aspects of the instrument, as well as the entire reconstructor. Many are present in the simulation environment used during the design phases, but need to be re-written and/or adapted for real-life use. In this paper, we present the design of the full command matrix optimisation module, the status of these efforts and the overall final concept of METIS’ soft real-time system.