ICALEPCS2015 - Classification: Experimental Control

Paper

Title

Page

Detector and Run Control Systems for the NA62 Fixed-Target Experiment at CERN

125

P. Golonka, R. Fantechi, M. Gonzalez-Berges, F. Varela
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
V. Falaleev
JINR, Dubna, Moscow Region, Russia
N. Lurkin
Birmingham University, Birmingham, United Kingdom
R.F. Page
University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom

The Detector and Run Control systems for the NA62 experiment, which started physics data-taking in Autumn of 2014, were designed, developed and deployed in collaboration between the Physics and Engineering Departments at CERN. Based on the commonly used control frameworks, UNICOS and JCOP, they were developed with scarce manpower while meeting the challenge of extreme agility, evolving requirements, as well as integration of new types of hardware. This paper presents, for the first time, the architecture of these systems and discusses the challenges and experience in developing and maintaining them during the first months of operation.

Poster MOPGF020 [4.624 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

MOPGF045

MEBT and D-Plate Control System Status of the Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator

197

J. Calvo, D. Jiménez-Rey, E. Molina Marinas, J. Mollá, I. Podadera
CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain

Funding: This work has been partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, under projects OPTIMHAC FIS2013-40860-R and IFMIF-EVEDA II. Ref: AIC-A-2011-0654.
Linear IFMIF* Prototype Accelerator (LIPAc), Rokkasho, Japan, comprises a succession of devices and systems that accelerate a deuteron beam up to 9 MeV with a current of 125 mA, generating a power of 1.125 MW, and transport it up to a beam dump. The beam power becomes critical from the point of view of losses; even tiny losses must be avoided. This fact, and the complexity of the accelerator operation, requires a coherent strategy when designing, commissioning and optimizing the accelerator control system, specifically focused in the control systems of the Medium Energy Beam Transport (MEBT) and the Diagnostic Plate (DP, a movable set of diagnostics). Both systems are essential to validate the performance of the accelerator and particularly the ion source, Radio Frequency (RF) and Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) systems. This contribution will describe the recent advances in the control architectures and the EPICS based developments achieved in MEBT for the motion control of bunchers and scrapers, control of the power supplies in quadrupoles and steerers, and refrigeration and vacuum. Besides, control of fluorescence profile monitors (FPMs) in the D-Plate is displayed.
*IFMIF, the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility, is an accelerator-based neutron source that will use Li (d, xn) reactions to generate a flux of neutrons with a broad peak at 14 MeV.

Poster MOPGF045 [1.337 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

MOPGF048

IBEX - the New EPICS Based Instrument Control System at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron and Muon Source

205

F.A. Akeroyd, K.V.L. Baker, M.J. Clarke, G.D. Howells, D.P. Keymer, K.J. Knowles, C. Moreton-Smith, D.E. Oram
STFC/RAL/ISIS, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon, United Kingdom
M. Bell, I.A. Bush, R.F. Nelson, K. Ward, K. Woods
Tessella, Abingdon, United Kingdom

Instrument control at ISIS is in the process of migrating from a mainly locally developed system to an EPICS based system. The new control system, called IBEX, was initially used during commissioning of a new instrument prior to a long maintenance shutdown. This first usage has provided valuable feedback and significant progress has been made on enhancing the system during the facility maintenance period in preparation for the move onto production use. Areas that will be of particular interest to scientists in the future will be linking feedback from live data analysis with instrument control and also providing a simple and powerful scripting interface for facility users. In this paper we will cover the architecture and design of the new control system, our choices of technologies, how the system has evolved following initial use, and our plans for moving forward.

Poster MOPGF048 [0.718 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

MOPGF049

100Hz Data Acquisition in the TANGO Control System at the Max IV Linac

209

P.J. Bell, V.H. Hardion, V. Michel
MAX-lab, Lund, Sweden

The MAX IV synchrotron radiation facility is currently being constructed in Lund, Sweden. A linear accelerator serves as the injector for the two storage rings and also as the source of short X ray pulses, in which mode it will operate with a 100Hz repetition rate. The controls system, based on TANGO, is required to collect and archive data from several different types of hardware at up to this 100Hz frequency. These data are used for example in offline beam diagnostics, for which they must be associated to a unique electron bunch number. To meet these requirements, the timing performance of the hardware components have been studied, and a TANGO Fast Archiver device created. The system is currently in the deployment phase and will play an important role in allowing the linac and Short Pulse Facility reach their 100Hz design goal

Poster MOPGF049 [17.957 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

MOPGF050

Tango-Kepler Integration at ELI-ALPS

212

P. Ács, S. Brockhauser, L.J. Fülöp, V. Hanyecz, M. Kiss, Cs. Koncz, L. Schrettner
ELI-ALPS, Szeged, Hungary

Funding: The ELI-ALPS project (GOP-1.1.1-12/B-2012-000, GINOP-2.3.6-15-2015-00001) is supported by the European Union and co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.
ELI-ALPS will provide a wide range of attosecond pulses which will be used for performing experiments by international research groups. ELI-ALPS will use the TANGO Controls framework to build up the central control system and to integrate the autonomous subsystems regarding software monitoring and control. Beside a robust central and integrated control system a flexible and dynamic high level environment could be beneficial. The envisioned users will come from diverse fields including chemistry, biology, physics or medicine. Most of the users will not have programming or scripting background. Meanwhile workflow system provides visual programming facilities where the logics can be drawn, which is understandable by the potential users. We have integrated TANGO into the Kepler workflow system because it gives a lot of actors for all natural scientific fields. Moreover it has the potential for running the workflows on HPC or GRID resources. We demonstrated the usability of the development with a beamline simulation. The TANGO-Kepler integration provides an easy-to-use environment for the users therefore it can facilitate e.g. the standardization of measurements protocols as well.

Poster MOPGF050 [0.668 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

MOPGF052

A Framework for Hardware Integration in the LHCb Experiment Control System

221

L.G. Cardoso, F. Alessio, J. Barbosa, C. Gaspar, R. Schwemmer
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
P-Y. Duval
CPPM, Marseille, France

LHCb is one of the four experiments at the LHC accelerator at CERN. For the LHCb upgrade, hundreds of new electronics boards for the central data acquisition and for the front-end readout of the different sub-detectors are being developed. These devices will need to be integrated in the Experiment Control System (ECS) that drives LHCb. Typically, they are controlled via a server running on a PC which allows the communication between the hardware registers and the experiment SCADA (WinCC OA). A set of tools was developed that provide an easy integration of the control and monitoring of the devices in the ECS. The fwHw is a tool that allows the abstraction of the device models into the ECS. Using XML files describing the structure and registers of the devices it creates the necessary model of the hardware as a data structure in the SCADA. It allows then the control and monitoring of the defined registers using their name, without the need to know the details of the hardware behind. The fwHw tool also provides the facility of defining and applying recipes - named sets of configuration parameters which can be used to easily configure the hardware according to specific needs.

Poster MOPGF052 [0.710 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

MOPGF056

Synchronising High-Speed Triggered Image and Meta Data Acquisition for Beamlines

225

N. De Maio, A.P. Bark, T.M. Cobb, J.A. Thompson
DLS, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

High-speed image acquisition is becoming more and more common on beamlines. As experiments increase in complexity, the need to record parameters related to the environment at the same time increases with them. As a result, conventional systems for combining experimental meta data and images often struggle to deliver at a speed and precision that would be desirable for the experiment. We describe an integrated solution that addresses those needs, overcoming the performance limitations of PV monitoring by combining hardware triggering of an ADC card, coordination of signals in a Zebra box* and three instances of area-Detector streaming to HDF5 data. This solution is expected to be appropriate for frame rates ranging from 30Hz to 1000Hz, with the limiting factor being the maximum speed of the camera. Conceptually, the individual data streams are arranged in pipelines controlled by a master Zebra box, expecting start/stop signals on one end and producing the data collections at the other. This design ensures efficiency on the acquisition side while allowing easy interaction with higher-level applications on the other.
*T. Cobb, Y. Chernousko, I. Uzun, ZEBRA: A Flexible Solution for Controlling Scanning Experiments, Proc. ICALEPCS13, http://jacow.org/.

Poster MOPGF056 [0.456 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

MOPGF057

Quick Experiment Automation Made Possible Using FPGA in LNLS

229

M.P. Donadio, J.R. Piton, H.D. de Almeida
LNLS, Campinas, Brazil

Beamlines in LNLS are being modernized to use the synchrotron light as efficiently as possible. As the photon flux increases, experiment speed constraints become more visible to the user. Experiment control has been done by ordinary computers, under a conventional operating system, running high-level software written in most common programming languages. This architecture presents some time issues as computer is subject to interruptions from input devices like mouse, keyboard or network. The programs quickly became the bottleneck of the experiment. To improve experiment control and automation speed, we transferred software algorithms to a FPGA device. FPGAs are semiconductor devices based around a matrix of logic blocks reconfigurable by software. The results of using a NI Compact RIO device with FPGA programmed through LabVIEW for adopting this technology and future improvements are briefly shown in this paper.

Poster MOPGF057 [5.365 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

MOPGF058

Neutron Scattering Instrument Control System Modernization - Front-End Hardware and Software Adaption Problems

233

M. Drochner, L. Fleischhauer-Fuss, H. Kleines, M. Wagener, S. van Waasen
FZJ, Jülich, Germany

When the FRM-2 neutron source went into operation (2002) and many instruments were moved from the closed-down Jülich reactor to the new facility, it was agreed on a choice of front-end hardware and the TACO middleware from ESRF. To keep up with software standards, it was decided recently to switch to TACO's successor - the TANGO control software. For a unified "user experience", new graphical user interface software "NICOS-2" is being developed by the software group at FRM2. While general semantics of TACO and TANGO don't look very different at a first glance, and adaption of device servers seemed to be straightforward at first, various problems in practical operation were found. The problems were due to differences in state handling, timing behavior and error reporting. These problems, and the changes that had to be made to ensure reliable operation again, will be described.

Poster MOPGF058 [3.981 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

MOPGF063

The New TANGO-based Control and Data Acquisition of the Neutron Instrument DNS at FRM II

236

H. Kleines, M. Bednarek, K. Bussmann, M. Drochner, L. Fleischhauer-Fuss, S. Janaschke, S. Keuler, K.-H. Mertens, S. Su, F. Suxdorf, S. van Waasen
FZJ, Jülich, Germany

Forschungszentrum Jülich has been operating the neutron Instrument DNS at the neutron source FRM II for about 10 years. DNS is a time of flight neutron spectrometer with polarization analysis that experienced a major upgrade in 2014 and 2015. During the upgrade DNS was equipped with new electronics and a new control and data acquisition system, including a transition from the existing TACO system to its successor TANGO. On the client side the NICOS software developed at FRM II is used for the implementation of measurement operations and user interface. The design of the new control and data acquisition system is presented and the lessons learned by the introduction of TANGO are reported.

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

MOPGF065

Motion Control on the Max IV Soft X-Ray Beamlines With Tango and Sardana

240

M. Lindberg, J. Forsberg, L. Kjellsson, A.M. Milan, C. Såthe, P. Sjöblom, S. Urpelainen
MAX-lab, Lund, Sweden

MAX IV Laboratory, a synchrotron facility in Lund, has selected TANGO as the control system framework for the entire facility. On the beamlines that are being built the Python-based SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system Sardana will be used for experimental control. SPECIES, one out of eight new soft X-ray beamlines, is used as a test bench for evaluating the chosen standards. Sardana is used to control the energy setting of the PGM (plane grating monochromator) as well as to provide macros and other utilities for the user. Generic Taurus GUIs and a SVG-synoptic give the user a way to interact with the control system and display relevant information. The standardized graphical interfaces give a familiar look and feel across the entire facility. All motorized axes are controlled with the IcePAP motion controller. For the axes of the PGM, the IcePAP driver operates in hardware closed loop. Special care is taken in order to avoid slow and inaccurate movements of the PGM energy due to the non-linear relationship between the motors and the angular encoders.

Poster MOPGF065 [0.875 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

MOPGF067

MeerKAT Control and Monitoring System Architecture

247

N. Marais
SKA South Africa, National Research Foundation of South Africa, Cape Town, South Africa

Funding: SKA South Africa, National Research Foundation of South Africa, Department of Science and Technology.
The 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope, currently under construction, comprises several loosely coupled independent subsystems, requiring a higher level Control and Monitoring (CAM) system to operate as a coherent instrument. Many control-system architectures are bus-like, clients directly \mbox{receiving} monitoring points from Input/Output Controllers; instead a multi-layer architecture based on point-to-point Karoo Array Telescope Control Protocol (KATCP) connections is used for MeerKAT. Clients (e.g. operators or scientists) only communicate directly with the outer layer of the telescope; only telescope interactions required for the given role are exposed to the user. The layers, interconnections, and how this architecture is used to meet telescope system requirements are described. Requirements include: Independently controllable telescope subsets; dynamically allocating telescope resources to individual users or observations, preventing the control of resources not allocated to them; commensal observations sharing resources; automatic detection of, and responses to, system-level alarm events; high level operator controls and health displays; automatic execution of scheduled observations.

Poster MOPGF067 [60.303 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

MOPGF070

Report on Control/DAQ Software Design and Current State of Implementation for the Percival Detector

251

A.S. Palaha, C. Angelsen, Q. Gu, J. Marchal, U.K. Pedersen, N.P. Rees, N. Tartoni, H. Yousef
DLS, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
M. Bayer, J. Correa, P. Gnadt, H. Graafsma, P. Göttlicher, S. Lange, A. Marras, S. Řeža, I. Shevyakov, S. Smoljanin, L. Stebel, C. Wunderer, Q. Xia, M. Zimmer
DESY, Hamburg, Germany
G. Cautero, D. Giuressi, A. Khromova, R.H. Menk, G. Pinaroli
Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., Basovizza, Italy
D. Das, N. Guerrini, B. Marsh, T.C. Nicholls, I. Sedgwick, R. Turchetta
STFC/RAL, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon, United Kingdom
H.J. Hyun, K.S. Kim, S.Y. Rah
PAL, Pohang, Republic of Korea

The increased brilliance of state-of-the-art Synchrotron radiation sources and Free Electron Lasers require imaging detectors capable of taking advantage of these light source facilities. The PERCIVAL ("Pixelated Energy Resolving CMOS Imager, Versatile and Large") detector is being developed in collaboration between DESY, Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, Diamond Light Source and Pohang Accelerator Laboratory. It is a CMOS detector targeting soft X-rays < 1 KeV, with a high resolution of up to 13 M pixels reading out at 120 Hz, producing a challenging data rate of 6 GB/s. The controls and data acquisition system will include a SDK to allow integration with third party control systems like Tango and DOOCS; an EPICS areaDetector driver will be included by default. It will make use of parallel readout to keep pace with the data rate, distributing the data over multiple nodes to create a single virtual dataset using the HDF5 file format for its speed advantages in high volumes of regular data. This paper presents the design of the control system software for the Percival detector, an update of the current state of the implementation carried out by Diamond Light Source.

Poster MOPGF070 [0.363 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

MOPGF071

Sodium Laser Guide Star Emulation

255

I.A. Price
Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Australian National University, Weston Creek, Australia
R. Conan
GMTO Corporation, Pasadena, USA

In the era of extremely large telescopes (ELT) an adaptive optics (AO) system with artificial guide stars is an essential part of the optics between the source and the instrument. For the Giant Magellan Telescope these guide stars are formed by stimulating emission from Sodium atoms in the atmosphere with lasers launched from the side of the telescope. Moreover, they are resolved by the adaptive optics system so Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors record elongated spots. Cost effective proof-of-concept systems for investigating control algorithms must be built for deployment in the lab or on small telescopes. We present a hardware and software system that mimics the propagation of a single laser guide star (LGS) through the Earth's atmosphere and the optics of the Giant Magellan Telescope, using source motion and brightness modulation to simulate the source extension. A service oriented architecture allows adaptive optics scientists to construct images from different LGS asterisms and build non-real-time closed-loop control systems in high-level languages.

Poster MOPGF071 [4.473 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

TUA3O01

Detector Controls Meets JEE on the Web

513

F. Glege, A. Andronidis, O. Chaze, C. Deldicque, M. Dobson, A.D. Dupont, D. Gigi, J. Hegeman, O. Holme, M. Janulis, R.J. Jiménez Estupiñán, L. Masetti, F. Meijers, E. Meschi, S. Morovic, C. Nunez-Barranco-Fernandez, L. Orsini, A. Petrucci, A. Racz, P. Roberts, H. Sakulin, C. Schwick, B. Stieger, S. Zaza, P. Zejdl
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
J.M. Andre, R.K. Mommsen, V. O'Dell
Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois, USA
U. Behrens
DESY, Hamburg, Germany
J. Branson, S. Cittolin, A. Holzner, M. Pieri
UCSD, La Jolla, California, USA
G.L. Darlea, G. Gomez-Ceballos, C. Paus, J. Veverka
MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
S. Erhan
UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA

Remote monitoring and controls has always been an important aspect of physics detector controls since it was available. Due to the complexity of the systems, the 24/7 running requirements and limited human resources, remote access to perform interventions is essential. The amount of data to visualize, the required visualization types and cybersecurity standards demand a professional, complete solution. Using the example of the integration of the CMS detector controls system into our ORACLE WebCenter infrastructure, the mechanisms and tools available for integration with controls systems shall be discussed. Authentication has been delegated to WebCenter and authorization been shared between web server and control system. Session handling exists in either system and has to be matched. Concurrent access by multiple users has to be handled. The underlying JEE infrastructure is specialized in visualization and information sharing. On the other hand, the structure of a JEE system resembles a distributed controls system. Therefore an outlook shall be given on tasks which could be covered by the web servers rather than the controls system.

Slides TUA3O01 [2.611 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

TUA3O02

DA+ Complex Protocols Made Easy for Macromolecular Crystallography Beamlines at the Swiss Light Source

E.H. Panepucci, S.G. Ebner, J.A. Wojdyla
PSI, Villigen PSI, Switzerland

Software becomes a key factor for the efficient use of beamtime at synchrotrons and other facilities. Especially for macromolecular crystallography beamlines (MX) data acquisition software starts to make the difference that leads to a competitive advantage. The MX beamlines at the PSI are addressing this issue with the data acquisition software DA+. DA+ is a concept, design and implementation consisting of loosely coupled services and components written in Python and Java. The major components making up the system are the UI, acquisition engine, hardware/detector and online processing. These components are connected via messaging and streaming technologies. The main focus of the software lies on "ease of use", "simplicity", and "immediate feedback". Efficient raster scanning of samples, near real time analysis of the collected raster data and support for standard as well as advanced data acquisition protocols such as multiple anomalous diffraction data acquisition are some examples to name. In this paper the details on these and other features of the software, as well as the underlying concept, will be unveiled.

Slides TUA3O02 [3.802 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

TUA3O04

CS-Studio Scan System Parallelization

517

K.-U. Kasemir, M.R. Pearson
ORNL, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA

Funding: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy.
For several years, the Control System Studio (CS-Studio) Scan System has successfully automated the operation of beam lines at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). As it is applied to additional beam lines, we need to support simultaneous adjustments of temperatures or motor positions. While this can be implemented via virtual motors or similar logic inside the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) Input/Output Controllers (IOCs), doing so requires a priori knowledge of experimenters requirements. By adding support for the parallel control of multiple process variables (PVs) to the Scan System, we can better support ad hoc automation of experiments that benefit from such simultaneous PV adjustments.

Slides TUA3O04 [2.789 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

TUB3O01

Advanced Workflow for Experimental Control

521

D. Mannicke, N. Hauser, N. Xiong
ANSTO, Menai, New South Wales, Australia

Gumtree is a software product developed at ANSTO and used for experimental control as well as data visualization and treatment. In order to simplify the interaction with instruments and optimize the available time for users, a user friendly multi sample workflow has been developed for Gumtree. Within this workflow users follow a step by step guide where they list available samples, setup instrument configurations and even specify sample environments. Users are then able to monitor the acquisition process in real-time and receive estimations about the completion time. In addition users can modify the previously entered information, even after the acquisitions have commenced. This paper will focus on how ANSTO integrated a multi sample workflow into Gumtree, what approaches were taken to allow realistic time estimations, what programming patterns were used to separate the user interface from the execution of the acquisition, and how standardization across multiple instruments was achieved. Furthermore, this paper will summarize the lessons learned during the development iterations, the feedback received from users and the future opportunities the approach enables.
* Gumtree T. Lam, N. Hauser, A. Gotz, P. Hathaway, F. Franceschini, H. Rayner, GumTree. An integrated scientific experiment environment, Physica B 385-386, 1330-1332 (2006)

Slides TUB3O01 [1.040 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

TUB3O02

Iterative Development of the Generic Continuous Scans in Sardana

524

Z. Reszela, G. Cuní, C.M. Falcón Torres, D. Fernández-Carreiras, C. Pascual-Izarra, M. Rosanes Siscart
ALBA-CELLS Synchrotron, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain

Sardana* is a software suite for Supervision, Control and Data Acquisition in scientific installations. It aims to reduce cost and time of design, development and support of the control and data acquisition systems. Sardana is used in several synchrotrons where continuous scans are the desired way of executing experiments**. Most experiments require an extensive and coordinated control of many aspects like positioning, data acquisition, synchronization and storage. Many successful ad-hoc solutions have already been developed, however they lack generalization and are hard to maintain or reuse. Sardana, thanks to the Taurus*** based applications, allows the users to configure and control the scan experiments. The MacroServer, a flexible python based sequencer, provides parametrizable turn-key scan procedures. Thanks to the Device Pool controllers interfaces, heterogeneous hardware can be easily plug into Sardana and their elements used during scans and data acquisitions. Development of the continuous scans is an ongoing iterative process and its current status is described in this paper.
* http://sardana-controls.org** D. Fernandez-Carreiras, Synchronization of Motion and Detectors and Cont. Scans as the Standard Data Acquisition Technique, ICALEPCS2015*** http://taurus-scada.org

Slides TUB3O02 [3.173 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

TUB3O03

The Modular Control Concept of the Neutron Scattering Experiments at the European Spallation Source ESS

529

T. Gahl, R.J. Hall-Wilton, O. Kirstein, T. Korhonen, T.S. Richter, A. Sandström, I. Sutton, J.W. Taylor
ESS, Lund, Sweden

The European Spallation Source (ESS) in Lund, Sweden has just entered into neutron beam line construction starting detailed design in 2015. As a collaboration of 17 European countries the majority of hardware devices will be provided in-kind. This presents numerous technical and organizational challenges for the construction and the integration of the neutron instrumentation into the facility wide infrastructure; notably the EPICS control network and the facilities absolute timing system. In this contribution we present a strategy for the modularity of the instruments hardware with well-defined standardized functionality and a minimized number of control & data interfaces. Key point of the strategy is the time stamping of all readings from the instruments control electronics extending the event mode data acquisition from detected neutron events to all metadata. This gives the control software the flexibility necessary to adapt the functionality of the instruments to the demands of each single experimental run. Examples of the advantages of that approach in classical motion control as well as in complex robotics systems and matching hardware requirements necessary, is discussed.

Slides TUB3O03 [2.115 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

TUB3O04

The LMJ System Sequences Adaptability (French MegaJoule Laser)

533

Y. Tranquille-Marques, J. Fleury, H. Graillot, J. Nicoloso
CEA, LE BARP cedex, France
S. Bailleux, N. Chapron
AREVA TA Site LMJ CEA /CESTA, LE BARP cedex, France
J. Gende
ALTEN CEA /CESTA, Merignac, France

The French Atomic and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA : Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives) is currently building the Laser MegaJoule facility. In 2014, the first 8 beams and the target area were commissioned and the first physics campaign (a set of several shots) was achieved. On the LMJ, each shot requires more or less the same operations except for the settings that change from shot to shot. The supervisory controls provide five semi-automated sequence programs to repeat and schedule actions on devices. Three of them are now regularly used to drive the LMJ. Sequence programs need to have different qualities such as flexibility, contextual adaptability, reliability and repeatability. Currently, the calibration shots sequence drives 328 actions towards local control systems. However, this sequence is already dimensioned to drive 22 bundles, which will lead to manage almost 5300 actions. This paper introduces the organization of the control system used by sequence programs, the sequence adjustments files, the grafcets of sequences, the GUIs, the software and different tools used to control the facility.

Slides TUB3O04 [11.273 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

THHA3O01

The Evolution of the ALICE Detector Control System

1087

P.Ch. Chochula, A. Augustinus, P.M. Bond, A.N. Kurepin, M. Lechman, O. Pinazza
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
A.N. Kurepin
RAS/INR, Moscow, Russia
O. Pinazza
INFN-Bologna, Bologna, Italy

The ALICE Detector Control System has provided its service since 2007. Its operation in the past years proved that the initial design of the system fulfilled all expectations and allowed the evolution of the detectors and operational requirements to follow. In order to minimize the impact of the human factor, many procedures have been optimized and new tools have been introduced in order to allow the operator to supervise about 1 000 000 parameters from a single console. In parallel with the preparation for new runs after the LHC shutdown a prototyping for system extensions which shall be ready in 2018 has started. New detectors will require new approaches to their control and configuration. The conditions data, currently collected after each run, will be provided continuously to a farm containing 100 000 CPU cores and tens of PB of storage. In this paper the DCS design, deployed technologies, and experience gained during the 7 years of operation will be described and the initial assumptions with the current setup will be compared. The current status of the developments for the upgraded system, which will be put into operation in less than 3 years from now, will also be described.

Slides THHA3O01 [4.556 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

THHA3O02

Status of the Continuous Mode Scan for Undulator Beamlines at BESSY II

1091

A.F. Balzer, E. Schierle, E. Suljoti, M. Witt
HZB, Berlin, Germany
R. Follath
Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., Basovizza, Italy

At the synchrotron light source BESSY II monochromator (MONO) and insertion device (ID) scans can be done synchronized in two different modes. In step mode MONO and ID move independently to intermediate target positions of an energy scan. In continuous mode (CM) MONO and ID cover the whole range of the scan nonstop in a coupled motion. Data acquisition is done continuously at the speed provided by the CM scan and is available in regular user operation. Currently CM is in operation at 11 undulator beamlines at BESSY II. 3 new beamlines requesting CM are under construction. During CM the MONO EPICS IOC acts as a controller forcing the MONO optics to follow the movement of the ID. A non-linear predictive control scheme is used to implement this dynamic coupling. The controller task utilizes polynomial regression to extrapolate the ID motion. Calculation of the trajectories for MONO grating and mirror is based on bijective gap to energy lookup tables and the grating equation. In this paper the technical implementation, limitations, recently developed diagnostic methods, and future plans for improvements are presented.

Slides THHA3O02 [0.903 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

THHA3O03

Managing Neutron Beam Scans at the Canadian Neutron Beam Centre

1096

M.R. Vigder, M.L. Cusick, D. Dean
CNL, Ontario, Canada

The Canadian Neutron Beam Centre (CNBC) of the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) operate six beam lines for material research. A single beam line experiment requires scientists to acquire data as a sequence of scans that involves data acquisition at many points, varying sample positions, samples, wavelength, sample environment, etc. The points at which measurements must be taken can number in the thousands with scans or their variations having to be run multiple times. At the CNBC an approach has been developed to allow scientists to specify and manage their scans using a set of processes and tools. Scans are specified using a set of constructors and a scan algebra that allows scans to be combined using a set of scan operators. Using the operators of the algebra, complex scan sequences can be constructed from simpler scans and run unattended for up to a few days. Based on the constructors and the algebra, tools are provided to scientists to build, organize and execute their scans. These tools can take the form of scripting languages, spreadsheets, or databases. This scanning technique is currently in use at CNL, and has been implemented in Python on an EPICS based control system.

Slides THHA3O03 [0.745 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

THHB3O01

Mapping Developments at Diamond

1111

R.D. Walton, A. Ashton, M. Basham, P. C. Y. Chang, T.M. Cobb, A.J. Dent, J. Filik, M.W. Gerring, C. Mita, C.M. Palmer, U.K. Pedersen, P.D. Quinn, N.P. Rees, S. da Graca
DLS, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

Many synchrotron beamlines offer some form of continuous scanning for either energy scanning or sample mapping. However, this is normally done on an ad-hoc beamline by beamline basis. Diamond has recently embarked on an ambitious project to define how to implement continuous scanning as the standard way of doing virtually all mapping tasks on beamlines. The project is split into four main areas: 1) User interfaces to describe the mapping process in a scientifically relevant way, generating a scan description that can be used later; 2) The physical process of scanning and coordinating hardware motion and detector data capture across the beamline; 3) Capture of the detector data and all the associated meta-data to disk. Deciding and describing the layout of the file (or files) for the main use cases; 4) Display and analysis of live data and display of processed data. In order to achieve this common approach across beamlines, the standard software used throughout the facility (Delta Tau motor controllers, EPICS, GDA and DAWN), has been built on.

Slides THHB3O01 [1.926 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

THHB3O02

Real-Time Data Reduction Integrated into Instrument Control Software

1115

P. Mutti, F. Cecillon, C. Cocho, A. Elaazzouzi, Y. Le Goc, J. Locatelli, H. Ortiz
ILL, Grenoble, France

The increasing complexity of the experimental activity and the growing raw dataset collected during the measurements pushed the integration of the data reduction software within the instrument control. On-line raw data reduction allows users to take instant decisions based on the physical quantities they are looking for. In such a way, beam time is optimised avoiding oversampling. Moreover, the datasets are more consistent and the reduction procedure, becoming now part of the sequencer workflow, is well documented and can be saved for future use. A server and a client API that allows starting and monitoring the reduction procedures on remote machines and finally get their results, was designed. The implementation of the on-line data reduction on several instruments at the ILL as well as on the obtained performances, will be reported in this paper.

Slides THHB3O02 [4.458 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)

THHB3O03

On-the-Fly Scans for Fast Tomography at LNLS Imaging Beamline

1119

G.B.Z.L. Moreno, R. Bongers, M.B. Cardoso, F.P. O'Dowd, H.H. Slepicka
LNLS, Campinas, Brazil

Funding: Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory.
As we go to brighter light sources and time resolved ex-periments, different approaches for executing faster scans in synchrotrons are an everpresent need. In many light sources, performing scans through a sequence of hardware triggers is the most commonly used method for synchronizing instruments and motors. Thus, in order to provide a sufficiently flexible and robust solution, the XRay Imaging Beamline (IMX) at the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Source [1] upgraded its scanning system to a NI PXI chassis interfacing with Galil motion controllers and EPICS environment. It currently executes pointtopoint and onthefly scans controlled by hard-ware signals, fully integrated with the beamline control system under EPICS channel access protocol. Some approaches can use CSStudio screens and automated Python scripts to create a userfriendly interface. All pro-gramming languages used in the project are easy to use and to learn, which allows high maintainability for the system delivered. The use of LNLS Hyppie platform [2, 3] also enables software modularity for better compatibil-ity and scalability over different experimental setups and even different beamlines.
[1]F. P. O'Dowd et al.,"X-Ray micro-tomography at the IMX beamline (LNLS)", XRM2014.[2]J. R. Piton et al.,"Hyppie: A hypervisored PXI for physics instrumentation under EPICS", BIW2012.

Slides THHB3O03 [3.591 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)