advligorts: The Advanced LIGO real-time digital control and data acquisition system

The Advanced LIGO detectors are sophisticated opto-mechanical devices. At the core of their operation is feedback control. The Advanced LIGO project developed a custom digital control and data acquisition system to handle the unique needs of this new breed of astronomical detector. The advligortsis the software component of this system. This highly modular and extensible system has enabled the unprecedented performance of the LIGO instruments, and has been a vital component in the direct detection of gravitational waves.