Polaris: a general-purpose, modular data acquisition framework

Data acquisition (DAQ) plays a key role in most, if not all, experimental sciences. However, developing DAQ software is difficult and time-consuming. Polaris is a general-purpose, modular, open-source framework written in C++ that can meet a wide range of DAQ requirements, from laboratory measurements to mid-scale nuclear and particle physics experiments. This is achieved by decoupling application-specific requirements from common features of DAQ software. This article focuses on the design philosophy and features of Polaris and describes real-world applications of the Polaris framework.