INDI is a protocol that supports control, automation, data acquisition and exchange among hardware devices and software frontends. It enables hardware drivers for your astronomy equipment to run on multiple different clients locally and remotely and on a variety of hardware, from your personal computer or laptop, to single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi. Clients are the graphical frontends you use to control your astronomical devices.

Clients can include your planetarium program, smart phone or tablet clients, or guiding applications such as OpenPHD2...etc. INDI was designed from the ground up to be network enabled, and therefore remote control is built-in without requiring any 3rd party software. INDI Clients connect to INDI servers to show information on the devices and enable the user to control them. 

Thanks to the generic nature of INDI, INDI can virtually control any device. Currently, INDI Library supports many telescopes, CCD, focusers, filter wheels, domes...etc making it possible to run a complete observatory using open source INDI under Linux.

Ikarus Observatory relies on INDI to control and automate the following devices: 

• Ikarus Observatory Roll off roof.
• Orion Sirrus EQ-G (HEQ5) Mount.
• QSI 583wsg CCD with 5-position internal filter wheel.
• MoonLite focuser.
• Lodestar x2 autoguider.
• Optec FlipFlat for remotely controlled dust cover and flat field source.
• Davis Instrument Vantage Vue weather station serial console.