BART 2001-2004:: An intelligent robotic observatory

BART is a robotic observatory located at the Astronomical Institute in Ondrejov, Czech Republic. It is a relatively low-cost (25 cm + two wide-field lenses) device developed for rapid follow-ups of GRBs. Since 2001 when it started to observe, it has done several such observations. Meanwhile, photometric monitoring tasks are performed, using an intelligent selection algorithm. Not only the telescope is automatic, the entire observatory does not require human presence: system prepares the schedule, observes, registers the images and stores them into database without human intervention: human assistance is reduced to maintenance and weather checking. BART is a primary developing platform for RTS2, the robotic telescope operation software, which allows for unattended observation as well as control of the entire observatory.