ICALEPCS2015 - List of Keywords (GUI)

Paper	Title	Other Keywords	Page
MOB3O03	MAX IV Laboratory, Milestones and Lessons Learned	controls, TANGO, software, hardware	9
	V.H. Hardion, Y. Cerenius, F. H. Hennies, K. Larsson, J. Lidón-Simon, M. Sjöström, D.P. Spruce MAX-lab, Lund, Sweden
	The MAX IV Laboratory is a new scientific research facility based on synchrotron light being built at Lund University, southern Sweden. The accelerator consists of one full energy linear accelerator providing two storage rings at 1.5 GeV & 3 GeV and a Short Pulse Facility. Additionally more than 13 beamlines are planned to be built among which should be operational for the first users in 2016. The current status and approach of the control system is presented from its technical and organisational point of view, including the stakeholders, as well as the lessons learned from the commissioning as part of our continuous improvement for the future.
	Slides MOB3O03 [19.082 MB]
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MOPGF006	The Renovation of the CERN Controls Configuration Service	controls, database, software, factory	103
	L. Burdzanowski, C. Roderick CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
	The Controls Configuration Service (CCS) is a key component in CERN's data driven accelerator Control System. Based around a central database, the service also provides a range of client APIs and user interfaces - enabling configuration of controls for CERN's accelerator complex. The service has existed for 35 years (29 based on Oracle DBMS). There has been substantial evolution of the CCS over time to cater for changing requirements and technology advances. Inevitably this has led to increases in CCS complexity and an accumulation of technical debt. These two aspects combined have a negative impact on the flexibility and maintainability of the CCS, leading to a potential bottleneck for Control System evolution. This paper describes on-going renovation efforts (started mid-2014) to tackle the aforementioned issues, whilst ensuring overall system stability. In particular, this paper covers architectural changes, the agile development process in place - bringing users close to the development cycle, and the deterministic approach used to treat technical debt. Collectively these efforts are leading towards a successful renovation of a core element of the Control System.
	Poster MOPGF006 [4.512 MB]
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MOPGF048	IBEX - the New EPICS Based Instrument Control System at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron and Muon Source	controls, EPICS, experiment, LabView	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]
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MOPGF065	Motion Control on the Max IV Soft X-Ray Beamlines With Tango and Sardana	controls, TANGO, synchrotron, software	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]
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MOPGF099	Upgraded Control System for LHC Beam-Based Collimator Alignment	alignment, software, controls, software-architecture	306
	G. Valentino, G. Baud, M. Gąsior, S. Jackson, L.K. Jensen, J. Olexa, S. Redaelli, J. Wenninger CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
	In the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), over 100 movable collimators are connected to a three-tier control system which moves them to the required settings throughout the operational cycle from injection to collision energy. A dedicated control system was developed to align the collimators to the beam during machine commissioning periods and hence determine operational settings for the active run. During Long Shutdown 1, the control system was upgraded to allow beam-based alignments to be performed using embedded beam position monitors in 18 newly installed collimators as well as beam loss monitors. This paper presents the new collimation controls architecture for LHC Run II along with several modifications in the Java-based application layer.
	Poster MOPGF099 [1.418 MB]
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MOPGF136	ADaMS 3: An Enhanced Access Control System for CERN	controls, interface, target, real-time	401
	P. Martel, Ch. Delamare, G. Godineau, R. Nunes CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
	ADaMS is CERN's Access Distribution and Management System. It evaluates access authorizations to more than 400 zones and for more than 35k persons. Although accesses are granted based on a combination of training courses followed, administrative authorizations and the radio-protection situation of an individual, the policies and technicalities are constantly evolving along with the laboratory's activities; the current version of ADaMS is based on a 7 year old design, and is starting to show its limits. A new version of ADaMS (3) will allow improved coordination with CERN's scheduling and planning tools (used heavily during technical shutdowns, for instance), will allow CERN's training catalog to change without impacting access management and will simplify and reduce the administrative workload of granting access. The new version will provide enhanced self-services to end users by focusing on access points (the physical barriers) instead of safety zones. ADaMS 3 will be able to cope better with changing and new requirements, as well as the multiplication of access points. The project requires the cooperation of a dozen services at CERN, and should take 18 months to develop.
	Poster MOPGF136 [1.263 MB]
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MOPGF140	Integration of PLC's in Tango Control Systems Using PyPLC	TANGO, controls, PLC, database	413
	S. Rubio-Manrique, M. Broseta, G. Cuní, D. Fernández-Carreiras, A. Rubio, J. Villanueva ALBA-CELLS Synchrotron, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
	The Equipment Protection Systems and Personnel Safety Systems of the ALBA Synchrotron are complex and highly distributed control systems based on PLC's from different vendors. EPS and PSS not only regulate the interlocks of the whole ALBA facility but provide an extense network of analog and digital sensors that collect information from all subsystems; as well as its logical states. TANGO is the Control System framework used at ALBA, providing several tools and services (GUI's, Archiving, Alarms) in which EPS and PSS systems must be integrated. PyPLC, a dynamic Tango device, have been developed in python to provide a flexible interface and enable PLC developers to automatically update it. This paper describes how protection systems and the PLC code generation cycle have been fully integrated within TANGO Control System at ALBA.
	Poster MOPGF140 [2.246 MB]
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MOPGF179	Status of the Solaris Control System - Collaborations and Technology	controls, TANGO, software, operation	510
	P.P. Goryl, C.J. Bocchetta, P. Bulira, A.I. Wawrzyniak, K. Wawrzyniak, L. Żytniak Solaris, Kraków, Poland V.H. Hardion, J.J. Jamróz, J. Lidón-Simon, M. Lindberg, A.G. Persson, D.P. Spruce MAX-lab, Lund, Sweden M.J. Stankiewicz Solaris National Synchrotron Radiation Centre, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland T. Szymocha Cyfronet, Kraków, Poland
	Funding: Work supported by the European Regional Development Fund within the frame of the Innovative Economy Operational Program: POIG.02.01.00-12-213/09. The Solaris is a synchrotron light source starting just now in Kraków, Poland. It is built with strong collaboration with other European accelerator facilities. The MAX-IV project in Lund, Sweden and Tango Community are the most important partners in the project. Solaris has built a twin copy of MAX-IV 1.5GeV ring and linear accelerator based on the same components as the ones of MAX-IV. Thus, both facilities share know-how and apply similar technologies for the control system, among them the Tango CS is used for software layer. Status of the control system in Kraków as well as collaborations and technological choices impact on its success will be presented.
	Poster MOPGF179 [2.497 MB]
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TUB3O04	The LMJ System Sequences Adaptability (French MegaJoule Laser)	laser, controls, target, database	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]
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TUC3O04	Reusable Patient Safety System Framework for the Proton Therapy Centre at PSI	EPICS, FPGA, proton, interface	549
	P. Fernandez Carmona, M. Eichin, M. Grossmann, E. Johansen, A. Mayor, H.A. Regele PSI, Villigen PSI, Switzerland
	A new gantry for cancer treatment is being installed at the Proton Therapy Centre in the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), where already two gantries and a fixed line operate. A protection system is required to ensure the safety of patients, requiring stricter redundancy, verification and quality assurance (QA) measures than other accelerators. It supervises the Therapy System, sensors, monitors and operator interface and can actuate magnets and beam blockers. We built a reusable framework to increase the maintainability of the system using the commercial IFC1210 VME controller, developed for other PSI facilities. It features a FPGA implementing all the safety logic and two processors, one dedicated to debugging and the other to integrating in the facility's EPICS environment. The framework permitted us to reduce the design and test time by an estimated 40% thanks to a modular approach. It will also allow a future renovation of other areas with minimum effort. Additionally it provides built-in diagnostics such as time measurement statistics, interlock analysis and internal visibility. The automation of several tasks reduces the burden of QA in an environment with tight time constraints.
	Slides TUC3O04 [10.390 MB]
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WEB3O04	Accelerator Modelling and Message Logging with ZeroMQ	controls, CORBA, database, framework	610
	J.T.M. Chrin, M. Aiba, A. Rawat, Z. Wang PSI, Villigen PSI, Switzerland
	ZeroMQ is an emerging message oriented middleware architecture that is being increasingly adopted in the software engineering of distributed control and data acquisition systems within the accelerator community. The rich array of built-in core messaging patterns may, however, be equally applied to within the domain of high-level applications, where the seamless integration of accelerator models and message logging capabilities, respectively serve to extend the effectiveness of beam dynamics applications and allow for their monitoring. Various advanced patterns that include intermediaries and proxies further provide for reliable service-oriented brokers, as may be required in real-world operations. A report on an investigation into ZeroMQ's suitability for integrating key distributed components into high-level applications, and the experience gained, are presented.
	Slides WEB3O04 [3.542 MB]
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WED3O04	HDB++: A New Archiving System for TANGO	TANGO, database, device-server, interface	652
	L. Pivetta, C. Scafuri, G. Scalamera, G. Strangolino, L. Zambon Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., Basovizza, Italy R. Bourtembourg, J.L. Pons, P.V. Verdier ESRF, Grenoble, France
	The TANGO release 8 led to several enhancements, including the adoption of the ZeroMQ library for faster and lightweight event-driven communication. Exploiting these improved capabilities, a high performance, event-driven archiving system written in C++ has been developed. It inherits the database structure from the existing TANGO Historical Data Base (HDB) and introduces new storage architecture possibilities, better internal diagnostic capabilities and an optimized API. Its design allows storing data into traditional database management systems such as MySQL or into NoSQL database such as Apache Cassandra. This paper describes the software design of the new HDB++ archiving system, the current state of the implementation and gives some performance figures and use cases.
	Slides WED3O04 [1.392 MB]
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WEM310	How Cassandra Improves Performances and Availability of HDB++ Tango Archiving System	TANGO, database, device-server, controls	685
	R. Bourtembourg, J.L. Pons, P.V. Verdier ESRF, Grenoble, France
	The TANGO release 8 led to several enhancements, including the adoption of the ZeroMQ library for faster and lightweight event-driven communication. Exploiting these improved capabilities, a high performance, event-driven archiving system, named Tango HDB++, has been developed. Its design gives the possibility to store archiving data into Apache Cassandra: a high performance scalable NoSQL distributed database, providing High Availability service and replication, with no single point of failure. HDB++ with Cassandra will open up new perspectives for TANGO in the era of big data and will be the starting point of new big data analytics/data mining applications, breaking the limits of the archiving systems which are based on traditional relational databases. This paper describes the current state of the implementation and our experience with Apache Cassandra in the scope of the Tango HDB++ project. It also gives some performance figures and use cases where using Cassandra with Tango HDB++ is a good fit. HDB++ project is the result of a collaboration between the Elettra synchrotron (Trieste) and the European Radiation Synchrotron Facility (Grenoble)
	Slides WEM310 [1.897 MB]
	Poster WEM310 [2.446 MB]
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WEPGF014	A Data Acquisition System for Abnormal RF Waveform at SACLA	LLRF, data-acquisition, cavity, controls	721
	M. Ishii, M. Kago JASRI/SPring-8, Hyogo-ken, Japan T. Fukui RIKEN SPring-8 Center, Innovative Light Sources Division, Hyogo, Japan T. Hasegawa, M. Yoshioka SES, Hyogo-pref., Japan T. Inagaki, H. Maesaka, T. Ohshima, Y. Otake RIKEN SPring-8 Center, Sayo-cho, Sayo-gun, Hyogo, Japan T. Maruyama RIKEN/SPring-8, Hyogo, Japan
	At the X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facility, SACLA, an event-synchronized data acquisition system has been utilized for the XFEL operation. This system collects every shot-by-shot data, such as point data of the phase and amplitude of the RF cavity pickup signals, in synchronization with the beam operation cycle. This system also acquires RF waveform data every 10 minutes. In addition to the periodic waveform acquisition, an abnormal RF waveform that suddenly occurs should be collected for failure diagnostics. Therefore, we developed an abnormal RF waveform data acquisition (DAQ) system, which consists of the VME systems, a cache server, and a NoSQL database system, Apache Cassandra. When the VME system detects an abnormal RF waveform, it collects all related waveforms of the same shot. The waveforms are stored in Cassandra through the cache server. Before the installation to SACLA, we ensured the performance with a prototype system. In 2014, we installed the DAQ system into the injection part with five VME systems. In 2015, we will acquire waveforms from the low-level RF control system configured by 74 VME systems at the SACLA accelerator.
	Poster WEPGF014 [0.978 MB]
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WEPGF043	Metadatastore: A Primary Data Store for NSLS-2 Beamlines	experiment, database, data-analysis, EPICS	794
	A. Arkilic, D.B. Allan, T.A. Caswell, L.R. Dalesio, W.K. Lewis BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA
	Funding: Department of Energy, Brookhaven National Lab The beamlines at NSLS-II are among the highest instrumented, and controlled of any worldwide. Each beamline can produce unstructured data sets in various formats. This data should be made available for data analysis and processing for beamline scientists and users. Various data flow systems are in place in numerous synchrotrons, however these are very domain specific and cannot handle such unstructured data. We have developed a data flow service, metadatastore, that manages experimental data in NSLS-II beamlines. This service enables data analysis and visualization clients to access this service either directly or via databroker api in a consistent and partition tolerant fashion, providing a reliable and easy to use interface to our state-of-the-art beamlines.
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WEPGF071	Python Scripting for Instrument Control and Online Data Treatment	controls, interface, experiment, software	869
	N. Xiong, N. Hauser, D. Mannicke ANSTO, Menai, New South Wales, Australia
	Scripting is an important feature of instrument control software. It allows scientists to execute a sequence of tasks to run complex experiments, and it makes a software developers' life easier when testing and deploying new features. Modern instrument control applications require easy to develop and reliable scripting support. At ANSTO we provide a Python scripting interface for Gumtree. Gumtree is an application that provides three features; instrument control, data treatment and visualisation for neutron scattering instruments. The scripting layer has been used to coordinate these three features. The language is simple and well documented, so scientists require minimal programming experience. The scripting engine has a web interface so that users can use a web browser to run scripts remotely. The script interface has a numpy-like library that makes data treatment easier. It also has a GUI library that automatically generates control panels for scripts. The same script can be loaded in both the workbench (desktop) application and the web service application for online data treatment. In both cases a GUI will be generated with similar look and feel.
	Poster WEPGF071 [3.069 MB]
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WEPGF093	CXv4, a Modular Control System	controls, network, software, hardware	915
	D. Bolkhovityanov, P.B. Cheblakov, F.A. Emanov BINP SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia
	CX control system is used at VEPP-5 and several other BINP facilities. CX version 4 is designed to provide more flexibility and enable interoperability with other control systems. In addition to device drivers, most of its components are implemented in a modular fashion, including data access at both client and server sides. The server itself is a library. This approach allows clients to access several different control systems simultaneously and natively (without any gateways). CXv4 servers are able to provide data access to clients from diverse CS architectures/protocols, subject to appropriate network module being loaded. The server library, coupled with "null link" client-server access module, allows to create standalone monolythic programs for specific small applications (such as test benches and device test screens/utilities) using the same ready code from large-scale control system but without its complexity. CXv4 design principles and solutions are discussed and first deployment results are presented.
	Poster WEPGF093 [0.752 MB]
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WEPGF100	DRAMA 2 - An Evolutionary Leap for the DRAMA Environment for Instrumentation Software Development	status, interface, software, controls	934
	T.J. Farrell, K. Shortridge AAO, North Ryde, Australia
	The DRAMA Environment provides an API for distributed instrument software development. It originated at the Anglo-Australian Observatory (now Australian Astronomical Observatory) in the early 1990s, in response to the need for a software environment for large distributed and heterogeneous systems, with some components requiring real-time performance. It was first used for the AAO's 2dF fibre positioner project for the Anglo-Australian Telescope. 2dF is still in use today, but has changed dramatically over time. DRAMA is used for other AAO systems and is or has been used at various other observatories looking for a similar solution. Whilst DRAMA has evolved and many features were added, there had been no big changes. It was still a largely C language based system, with some C++ wrappers. It did not provide good support for threading or exceptions. Ideas for proper thread support within DRAMA have been in development for some years, but C++11 has provided many features which allow a high quality implementation. The opportunity provided by C++11 has been taken to make significant changes to the DRAMA API, producing a modern and more reliable interface to DRAMA, known as DRAMA2.
	Poster WEPGF100 [5.729 MB]
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WEPGF107	Multi-Host Message Routing in MADOCA II	controls, network, operation, free-electron-laser	954
	T. Matsumoto, Y. Furukawa, K. Okada JASRI/SPring-8, Hyogo-ken, Japan
	MADOCA II is a next generation of Message And Database Oriented Control Architecture (MADOCA) and implemented into control system of SPring-8 and SACLA data acquisition (DAQ) system since 2013. In 2014, SACLA introduced a third beam line to increase the capacity of experiments. Then sophisticated control architecture needed to be developed to prevent miss operations among beamlines. In this paper, multi-host message routing in MADOCA II and its application to SALCA DAQ system to solve the problem is presented. In SACLA DAQ system, a master server was added which intermediates control messages between clients and equipment management servers. Since the access control can be centralized to the master server, reliable operation can be had by avoiding the influence by accidental modification of DAQ setting by end-users. The multi-host message routing was implemented to add an extension in MADOCA II by forwarding specific message objects to other hosts. Some technical issues related to messaging loop and time delay, are also addressed. It is also planned to utilize this technique to other cases in BL at SPring-8 where access control under firewall is required.
	Poster WEPGF107 [0.762 MB]
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WEPGF118	Use of Tornado in KAT-7 and MeerKAT Framework	software, controls, framework, operation	977
	C.C.A. de Villiers, B. Xaia 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, 3rd Floor, The Park, Park Road, Pinelands, Cape Town, South Africa, 7405. The KAT-7 and MeerKAT radio telescope control systems (www.ska.ac.za) are built on a rich Python architecture. At its core, we use KATCP (Karoo Array Telescope Communications Protocol), a text-based protocol that has served the projects very well. KATCP is supported by every device and connected software component in the system. However, its original implementation relied on threads to support asynchronous operations, and this has sometimes complicated the evolution of the software. Since MeerKAT (with 64 dishes) will be much larger and more complex than KAT-7, the Control and Monitoring (CAM) team investigated some alternatives to classical threading. We have adopted Tornado (www.tornadoweb.org) as the asynchronous engine for KATCP. Tornado, popular for Web applications, is built on a robust and very efficient coroutine paradigm that in turn is based on Python's generators. Co-routines avoid the complexity of thread re-entrancy and lifetime management, resulting in cleaner and more maintainable user code. This paper will describe our migration to a Tornado co-routine architecture, highlighting the benefits and some of the pitfalls and implementation challenges we have met. *www.tornadoweb.org.
	Poster WEPGF118 [6.066 MB]
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WEPGF133	TINE Studio, Making Life Easy for Administrators, Operators and Developers	controls, operation, database, interface	1017
	P. Duval, M. Lomperski DESY, Hamburg, Germany J. Bobnar Cosylab, Ljubljana, Slovenia
	A mature control system will provide central services such as alarm handling, archiving, location and naming, debugging, etc. along with development tools and administrative utilities. It has become common to refer to the collection of these services as a 'studio'. Indeed Control System Studio (CSS)* strives to provide such services independent of the control system protocol. Such a 'one-size-fits-all' approach is likely, however, to focus on features and behavior of the most prominent control system protocol in use, providing a good fit there but perhaps offering only a rudimentary fit for 'other' control systems. TINE** is for instance supported by CSS but is much better served by making use of TINE Studio. This paper reports here on the rich set of services and utilities comprising TINE Studio. * http://www.controlsystemstudio.org ** http://tine.desy.de
	Poster WEPGF133 [2.528 MB]
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WEPGF135	Using the Vaadin Web Framework for Developing Rich Accelerator Controls User Interfaces	controls, framework, interface, real-time	1025
	K.A. Brown, T. D'Ottavio, W. Fu, S. Nemesure BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA
	Funding: Work supported by Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC under Contract No. DE-SC0012704 with the U.S. Department of Energy Applications used for Collider-Accelerator Controls at Brookhaven National Laboratory typically run as console level programs on a Linux operating system. One essential requirement for accelerator controls applications is bidirectional synchronized IO data communication. Several new web frameworks (Vaadin, GXT, node.js, etc.) have made it possible to develop web based Accelerator Controls applications that provide all the features of console based UI applications that includes bidirectional IO. Web based applications give users flexibility by providing an architecture independent domain for running applications. Security is established by restricting access to users within the local network while not limiting this access strictly to Linux consoles. Additionally, the web framework provides the opportunity to develop mobile device applications that makes it convenient for users to access information while away from the office. This paper explores the feasibility of using the Vaadin web framework for developing UI applications for Collider-Accelerator controls at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
	Poster WEPGF135 [0.990 MB]
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WEPGF137	Adopting and Adapting Control System Studio at Diamond Light Source	controls, interface, Windows, framework	1032
	M.J. Furseman, N.W. Battam, T.M. Cobb, I.J. Gillingham, M.T. Heron, G. Knap, W.A.H. Rogers DLS, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
	Since commissioning, Diamond Light Source has used the Extensible Display Manager (EDM) to provide a GUI to its EPICS-based control system. As Linux moves away from X-Windows the future of EDM is uncertain, leading to the evaluation of Control System Studio (CS-Studio) as a replacement. Diamond has a user base accustomed to the interface provided by EDM and an infrastructure designed to launch the multiple windows associated with it. CS-Studio has been adapted to provide an interface that is similar to EDM's while keeping the new features of CS-Studio available. This will allow as simple as possible a transition to be made to using CS-Studio as Diamond's user interface to EPICS. It further opens up the possibility of integrating the control system user interface with those in the Eclipse based GDA and DAWN tools which are used for data acquisition and data analysis at Diamond.
	Poster WEPGF137 [4.177 MB]
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WEPGF142	Advanced Matlab GUI Development with the DataGUI Library	software, interface, controls, status	1040
	S.M. Meykopff DESY, Hamburg, Germany
	On the DESY campus Matlab is a widely used tool for creating complex user interfaces. Although the on-board GUI tools are easy to use and provide quick results, the generated low-level code lacks uniformity and advanced features like automatic verification and conversion of input and output data. These limitations are overcome by the newly developed DataGUI library. The library is based on the model-view-controller software pattern and supports enhanced data handling, undocumented Matlab GUI elements, and configurable resizing of the user interface. An outlook on features of the upcoming release is also presented.
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WEPGF145	A Structured Approach to Control System GUI Design for the Solaris Light Source	software, controls, operation, TANGO	1044
	V. Juvan, I. Dolin'ek, T. Humar, M. Pavleski Cosylab, Ljubljana, Slovenia P.P. Goryl Solaris, Kraków, Poland
	In the framework of delivering control system services to the Solaris synchrotron light source, Kraków, Poland, Cosylab realized a comprehensive set of controls GUIs, using a structured approach. The goals of using this architecture are threefold. The first is to achieve reliable, predictable and consistent behaviour of the controls software. The second is that it is easy to deploy and maintain through scripting. The third is that it is future-proof by providing extensibility, using dedicated templates. The system is based on a configuration database, populated with devices, device specifics and device groups (clusters of devices performing specific operations). The GUIs are dynamically generated from this configuration. For the synoptic views, TANGO-standard JDraw and its configuration are integrated into the framework. Existing GUIs, written in PyTango can be easily adapted to function as part of this system. The compelling user benefits are high usability and life-time management through controlled upgrade and extension. For new big physics projects this GUI control program offers a customizable solution for any TANGO based control system.
	Poster WEPGF145 [4.620 MB]
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WEPGF146	GUI Style Guide for Control System Applications at ESS	controls, background, software, EPICS	1047
	F. Amand, M. Pavleski, M. Pleško Cosylab, Ljubljana, Slovenia L. Fernandez ESS, Lund, Sweden
	To help developers create consistent-looking control system application GUIs, the European Spallation Source Integrated Control Systems group asked Cosylab to develop a Style Guide document. Its purpose is to avoid that GUIs needlessly diverge and make the end-result of all screens combined look harmonious, even if GUIs have been developed over several years by many contributors. Also it will speed up development, by letting developers start from design patterns, rather than starting "from a blank page". The document defines a set of basic panel sizes, containing a 960px-style grid for consistent organization of content. It also defines color scheme and font usage, in-line with the overall ESS corporate communications manual, with the addition of signal colors. In addition it shows example screens to serve as GUI design patterns for typical screen types such as engineering screens, control applications and synoptic screens. It concludes by setting rules and recommendations for the usage of automation symbols and display of engineering and physical units. The document is further complemented by a separate document with Usability Guidelines for Human-Machine interfaces.
	Poster WEPGF146 [1.866 MB]
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WEPGF148	Unifying All TANGO Control Services in a Customizable Graphical User Interface	controls, TANGO, framework, interface	1052
	S. Rubio-Manrique, G. Cuní, D. Fernández-Carreiras, C. Pascual-Izarra, D. Roldán ALBA-CELLS Synchrotron, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain E. Al-Dmour MAX-lab, Lund, Sweden
	TANGO is a distributed Control System with an active community of developers. The community features multiple services like Archiving or Alarms with an heterogeneous mix of technologies and look-and-feels that must be integrated in the final user workflow. The Viewer and Commander Control Application (VACCA) was developed on top of Taurus to provide TANGO with the user experience of a commercial SCADA, keeping the advantages of open source. The Taurus GUI application enables scientists to design their own live applications using drag-and-drop from the widget catalog. The VACCA User Interface provides a template mechanism for synoptic-driven applications and extends the widget catalog to interact with all the components of the control system (Alarms, Archiving, Databases, Hosts Administration). The elements of VACCA are described in this paper, as well as its mechanisms to encapsulate all services in a GUI for an specific subsystem (e.g. Vacuum).
	Poster WEPGF148 [1.588 MB]
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WEPGF153	Karabo-GUI: A Multi-Purpose Graphical Front-End for the Karabo Framework	controls, distributed, data-acquisition, software	1063
	M. Teichmann, B.C. Heisen, K. Weger, J. Wiggins XFEL. EU, Hamburg, Germany
	The Karabo GUI is a generic graphical user interface (GUI) which is currently developed at the European XFEL GmbH. It allows the complete management of the Karabo distributed control and data acquisition system. Remote applications (devices) can be instantiated, operated and terminated. Devices are listed in a live navigation view and from the self-description inherent to every device a default configuration panel is generated. The user may combine interrelated components into one project. Such a project includes persisted device configurations, custom control panels and macros. Expert panels can be built by intermixing static graphical elements with dynamic widgets connected to parameters of the distributed system. The same panel can also be used to graphically configure and execute data analysis workflows. Other features include an embedded IPython scripting console, logging, notification and alarm handling. The GUI is user-centric and will restrict display or editing capability according to the user's role and the current device state. The GUI is based on PyQt technology and acts as a thin network client to a central Karabo GUI-Server.
	Poster WEPGF153 [0.767 MB]
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THHC3O01	The MeerKAT Graphical User Interface Technology Stack	interface, controls, monitoring, framework	1134
	M. Alberts, F. Joubert 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 3rd floor, The Park Park Road Pinelands ZA - Cape Town 7405 +27 21 506 7300 The South African MeerKAT radio telescope, currently being built some 90 km outside the small Northern Cape town of Carnarvon, is a precursor to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope and will be integrated into the mid-frequency component of SKA Phase 1. Providing the graphical user interface (GUI) for MeerKAT required a reassessment of currently employed technologies with a strong focus on leveraging modern user interface technologies and design techniques. An extensive investigation was performed to evaluate and assess potential GUI technologies and frameworks. The result of this investigative study identified a responsive web application for the frontend and asynchronous web server for the backend. In particular the AngularJS framework used in combination with Material Design principles, Websockets and other popular javascript layout and imaging libraries, such as D3.js, proved an ideal fit for the requirements of the MeerKAT GUI frontend. This paper will provide a summary of the user interface technology investigation and further expound on the whole technology stack adopted to provide a modern user interface with real time capabilities.
	Slides THHC3O01 [10.206 MB]
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THHC3O03	Effortless Creation of Control & Data Acquisition Graphical User Interfaces with Taurus	TANGO, controls, EPICS, interface	1138
	C. Pascual-Izarra, G. Cuní, C.M. Falcón Torres, D. Fernández-Carreiras, Z. Reszela, M. Rosanes Siscart ALBA-CELLS Synchrotron, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain T.M. Coutinho ESRF, Grenoble, France
	Creating and supporting Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) for experiment control and data acquisition has traditionally been a major drain of time and resources for laboratories. GUIs often need to be adapted to new equipment or methods, but typical users lack the technical skills to perform the required modifications, let alone to create new GUIs. Here we present the Taurus* framework which allows a non-programmer to create a fully-featured GUI (with forms, plots, synoptics, etc) from scratch in a few minutes using a "wizard" as well as to customize and expand it by drag-and-dropping elements around at execution time. Moreover, Taurus also gives full control to more advanced users to access, create and customize a GUI programmatically using Python. Taurus is a free, open source, multi-platform pure Python module (it uses PyQt for the GUI). Its support and development are driven by an active and welcoming community participated by several major laboratories and companies which use it for their developments. While Taurus was originally designed within the Sardana suite for the Tango* control system, now it can also support other control systems (even simultaneously) via plug-ins. * Taurus Home Page: http://taurus-scada.org Sardana Home Page: http://sardana-controls.org* Tango Home Page: http://tango-controls.org
	Slides THHC3O03 [23.185 MB]
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THHD3O06	Overview of the Monitoring Data Archive used on MeerKAT	database, interface, monitoring, status	1155
	M.J. Slabber 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. MeerKAT, the 64-receptor radio telescope being built in the Karoo, South Africa, by Square Kilometre Array South Africa (SKA SA), comprises a large number of components. All components are interfaced to the Control and Monitoring (CAM) system via the Karoo Array Telescope Communication Protocol (KATCP). KATCP is used extensively for internal communications between CAM components and other subsystems. A KATCP interface exposes requests and sensors. Sampling strategies are set on sensors, ranging from several updates per second to infrequent updates. The sensor samples are of multiple types, from small integers to text fields. As the various components react to user input and sensor samples, the samples with timestamps need to be permanently stored and made available for scientists, engineers and operators to query and analyse. This paper present how the storage infrastructure (dubbed Katstore) manages the volume, velocity and variety of this data. Katstore is comprised of several stages of data collection and transportation. The stages move the data from monitoring nodes to storage node to permanent storage to offsite storage. Additional information (e.g. type, description, units) about each sensor is stored with the samples.
	Slides THHD3O06 [29.051 MB]
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Paper

Title

Other Keywords

Page

MOB3O03

MAX IV Laboratory, Milestones and Lessons Learned

controls, TANGO, software, hardware

9

V.H. Hardion, Y. Cerenius, F. H. Hennies, K. Larsson, J. Lidón-Simon, M. Sjöström, D.P. Spruce
MAX-lab, Lund, Sweden

The MAX IV Laboratory is a new scientific research facility based on synchrotron light being built at Lund University, southern Sweden. The accelerator consists of one full energy linear accelerator providing two storage rings at 1.5 GeV & 3 GeV and a Short Pulse Facility. Additionally more than 13 beamlines are planned to be built among which should be operational for the first users in 2016. The current status and approach of the control system is presented from its technical and organisational point of view, including the stakeholders, as well as the lessons learned from the commissioning as part of our continuous improvement for the future.

Slides MOB3O03 [19.082 MB]

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MOPGF006

The Renovation of the CERN Controls Configuration Service

controls, database, software, factory

103

L. Burdzanowski, C. Roderick
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland

The Controls Configuration Service (CCS) is a key component in CERN's data driven accelerator Control System. Based around a central database, the service also provides a range of client APIs and user interfaces - enabling configuration of controls for CERN's accelerator complex. The service has existed for 35 years (29 based on Oracle DBMS). There has been substantial evolution of the CCS over time to cater for changing requirements and technology advances. Inevitably this has led to increases in CCS complexity and an accumulation of technical debt. These two aspects combined have a negative impact on the flexibility and maintainability of the CCS, leading to a potential bottleneck for Control System evolution. This paper describes on-going renovation efforts (started mid-2014) to tackle the aforementioned issues, whilst ensuring overall system stability. In particular, this paper covers architectural changes, the agile development process in place - bringing users close to the development cycle, and the deterministic approach used to treat technical debt. Collectively these efforts are leading towards a successful renovation of a core element of the Control System.

Poster MOPGF006 [4.512 MB]

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MOPGF048

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

controls, EPICS, experiment, LabView

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]

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MOPGF065

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

controls, TANGO, synchrotron, software

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]

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MOPGF099

Upgraded Control System for LHC Beam-Based Collimator Alignment

alignment, software, controls, software-architecture

306

G. Valentino, G. Baud, M. Gąsior, S. Jackson, L.K. Jensen, J. Olexa, S. Redaelli, J. Wenninger
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland

In the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), over 100 movable collimators are connected to a three-tier control system which moves them to the required settings throughout the operational cycle from injection to collision energy. A dedicated control system was developed to align the collimators to the beam during machine commissioning periods and hence determine operational settings for the active run. During Long Shutdown 1, the control system was upgraded to allow beam-based alignments to be performed using embedded beam position monitors in 18 newly installed collimators as well as beam loss monitors. This paper presents the new collimation controls architecture for LHC Run II along with several modifications in the Java-based application layer.

Poster MOPGF099 [1.418 MB]

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MOPGF136

ADaMS 3: An Enhanced Access Control System for CERN

controls, interface, target, real-time

401

P. Martel, Ch. Delamare, G. Godineau, R. Nunes
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland

ADaMS is CERN's Access Distribution and Management System. It evaluates access authorizations to more than 400 zones and for more than 35k persons. Although accesses are granted based on a combination of training courses followed, administrative authorizations and the radio-protection situation of an individual, the policies and technicalities are constantly evolving along with the laboratory's activities; the current version of ADaMS is based on a 7 year old design, and is starting to show its limits. A new version of ADaMS (3) will allow improved coordination with CERN's scheduling and planning tools (used heavily during technical shutdowns, for instance), will allow CERN's training catalog to change without impacting access management and will simplify and reduce the administrative workload of granting access. The new version will provide enhanced self-services to end users by focusing on access points (the physical barriers) instead of safety zones. ADaMS 3 will be able to cope better with changing and new requirements, as well as the multiplication of access points. The project requires the cooperation of a dozen services at CERN, and should take 18 months to develop.

Poster MOPGF136 [1.263 MB]

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MOPGF140

Integration of PLC's in Tango Control Systems Using PyPLC

TANGO, controls, PLC, database

413

S. Rubio-Manrique, M. Broseta, G. Cuní, D. Fernández-Carreiras, A. Rubio, J. Villanueva
ALBA-CELLS Synchrotron, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain

The Equipment Protection Systems and Personnel Safety Systems of the ALBA Synchrotron are complex and highly distributed control systems based on PLC's from different vendors. EPS and PSS not only regulate the interlocks of the whole ALBA facility but provide an extense network of analog and digital sensors that collect information from all subsystems; as well as its logical states. TANGO is the Control System framework used at ALBA, providing several tools and services (GUI's, Archiving, Alarms) in which EPS and PSS systems must be integrated. PyPLC, a dynamic Tango device, have been developed in python to provide a flexible interface and enable PLC developers to automatically update it. This paper describes how protection systems and the PLC code generation cycle have been fully integrated within TANGO Control System at ALBA.

Poster MOPGF140 [2.246 MB]

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MOPGF179

Status of the Solaris Control System - Collaborations and Technology

controls, TANGO, software, operation

510

P.P. Goryl, C.J. Bocchetta, P. Bulira, A.I. Wawrzyniak, K. Wawrzyniak, L. Żytniak
Solaris, Kraków, Poland
V.H. Hardion, J.J. Jamróz, J. Lidón-Simon, M. Lindberg, A.G. Persson, D.P. Spruce
MAX-lab, Lund, Sweden
M.J. Stankiewicz
Solaris National Synchrotron Radiation Centre, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
T. Szymocha
Cyfronet, Kraków, Poland

Funding: Work supported by the European Regional Development Fund within the frame of the Innovative Economy Operational Program: POIG.02.01.00-12-213/09.
The Solaris is a synchrotron light source starting just now in Kraków, Poland. It is built with strong collaboration with other European accelerator facilities. The MAX-IV project in Lund, Sweden and Tango Community are the most important partners in the project. Solaris has built a twin copy of MAX-IV 1.5GeV ring and linear accelerator based on the same components as the ones of MAX-IV. Thus, both facilities share know-how and apply similar technologies for the control system, among them the Tango CS is used for software layer. Status of the control system in Kraków as well as collaborations and technological choices impact on its success will be presented.

Poster MOPGF179 [2.497 MB]

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TUB3O04

The LMJ System Sequences Adaptability (French MegaJoule Laser)

laser, controls, target, database

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]

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TUC3O04

Reusable Patient Safety System Framework for the Proton Therapy Centre at PSI

EPICS, FPGA, proton, interface

549

P. Fernandez Carmona, M. Eichin, M. Grossmann, E. Johansen, A. Mayor, H.A. Regele
PSI, Villigen PSI, Switzerland

A new gantry for cancer treatment is being installed at the Proton Therapy Centre in the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), where already two gantries and a fixed line operate. A protection system is required to ensure the safety of patients, requiring stricter redundancy, verification and quality assurance (QA) measures than other accelerators. It supervises the Therapy System, sensors, monitors and operator interface and can actuate magnets and beam blockers. We built a reusable framework to increase the maintainability of the system using the commercial IFC1210 VME controller, developed for other PSI facilities. It features a FPGA implementing all the safety logic and two processors, one dedicated to debugging and the other to integrating in the facility's EPICS environment. The framework permitted us to reduce the design and test time by an estimated 40% thanks to a modular approach. It will also allow a future renovation of other areas with minimum effort. Additionally it provides built-in diagnostics such as time measurement statistics, interlock analysis and internal visibility. The automation of several tasks reduces the burden of QA in an environment with tight time constraints.

Slides TUC3O04 [10.390 MB]

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WEB3O04

Accelerator Modelling and Message Logging with ZeroMQ

controls, CORBA, database, framework

610

J.T.M. Chrin, M. Aiba, A. Rawat, Z. Wang
PSI, Villigen PSI, Switzerland

ZeroMQ is an emerging message oriented middleware architecture that is being increasingly adopted in the software engineering of distributed control and data acquisition systems within the accelerator community. The rich array of built-in core messaging patterns may, however, be equally applied to within the domain of high-level applications, where the seamless integration of accelerator models and message logging capabilities, respectively serve to extend the effectiveness of beam dynamics applications and allow for their monitoring. Various advanced patterns that include intermediaries and proxies further provide for reliable service-oriented brokers, as may be required in real-world operations. A report on an investigation into ZeroMQ's suitability for integrating key distributed components into high-level applications, and the experience gained, are presented.

Slides WEB3O04 [3.542 MB]

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WED3O04

HDB++: A New Archiving System for TANGO

TANGO, database, device-server, interface

652

L. Pivetta, C. Scafuri, G. Scalamera, G. Strangolino, L. Zambon
Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., Basovizza, Italy
R. Bourtembourg, J.L. Pons, P.V. Verdier
ESRF, Grenoble, France

The TANGO release 8 led to several enhancements, including the adoption of the ZeroMQ library for faster and lightweight event-driven communication. Exploiting these improved capabilities, a high performance, event-driven archiving system written in C++ has been developed. It inherits the database structure from the existing TANGO Historical Data Base (HDB) and introduces new storage architecture possibilities, better internal diagnostic capabilities and an optimized API. Its design allows storing data into traditional database management systems such as MySQL or into NoSQL database such as Apache Cassandra. This paper describes the software design of the new HDB++ archiving system, the current state of the implementation and gives some performance figures and use cases.

Slides WED3O04 [1.392 MB]

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WEM310

How Cassandra Improves Performances and Availability of HDB++ Tango Archiving System

TANGO, database, device-server, controls

685

R. Bourtembourg, J.L. Pons, P.V. Verdier
ESRF, Grenoble, France

The TANGO release 8 led to several enhancements, including the adoption of the ZeroMQ library for faster and lightweight event-driven communication. Exploiting these improved capabilities, a high performance, event-driven archiving system, named Tango HDB++*, has been developed. Its design gives the possibility to store archiving data into Apache Cassandra: a high performance scalable NoSQL distributed database, providing High Availability service and replication, with no single point of failure. HDB++ with Cassandra will open up new perspectives for TANGO in the era of big data and will be the starting point of new big data analytics/data mining applications, breaking the limits of the archiving systems which are based on traditional relational databases. This paper describes the current state of the implementation and our experience with Apache Cassandra in the scope of the Tango HDB++ project. It also gives some performance figures and use cases where using Cassandra with Tango HDB++ is a good fit.
* HDB++ project is the result of a collaboration between the Elettra synchrotron (Trieste) and the European Radiation Synchrotron Facility (Grenoble)

Slides WEM310 [1.897 MB]

Poster WEM310 [2.446 MB]

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WEPGF014

A Data Acquisition System for Abnormal RF Waveform at SACLA

LLRF, data-acquisition, cavity, controls

721

M. Ishii, M. Kago
JASRI/SPring-8, Hyogo-ken, Japan
T. Fukui
RIKEN SPring-8 Center, Innovative Light Sources Division, Hyogo, Japan
T. Hasegawa, M. Yoshioka
SES, Hyogo-pref., Japan
T. Inagaki, H. Maesaka, T. Ohshima, Y. Otake
RIKEN SPring-8 Center, Sayo-cho, Sayo-gun, Hyogo, Japan
T. Maruyama
RIKEN/SPring-8, Hyogo, Japan

At the X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facility, SACLA, an event-synchronized data acquisition system has been utilized for the XFEL operation. This system collects every shot-by-shot data, such as point data of the phase and amplitude of the RF cavity pickup signals, in synchronization with the beam operation cycle. This system also acquires RF waveform data every 10 minutes. In addition to the periodic waveform acquisition, an abnormal RF waveform that suddenly occurs should be collected for failure diagnostics. Therefore, we developed an abnormal RF waveform data acquisition (DAQ) system, which consists of the VME systems, a cache server, and a NoSQL database system, Apache Cassandra. When the VME system detects an abnormal RF waveform, it collects all related waveforms of the same shot. The waveforms are stored in Cassandra through the cache server. Before the installation to SACLA, we ensured the performance with a prototype system. In 2014, we installed the DAQ system into the injection part with five VME systems. In 2015, we will acquire waveforms from the low-level RF control system configured by 74 VME systems at the SACLA accelerator.

Poster WEPGF014 [0.978 MB]

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WEPGF043

Metadatastore: A Primary Data Store for NSLS-2 Beamlines

experiment, database, data-analysis, EPICS

794

A. Arkilic, D.B. Allan, T.A. Caswell, L.R. Dalesio, W.K. Lewis
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA

Funding: Department of Energy, Brookhaven National Lab
The beamlines at NSLS-II are among the highest instrumented, and controlled of any worldwide. Each beamline can produce unstructured data sets in various formats. This data should be made available for data analysis and processing for beamline scientists and users. Various data flow systems are in place in numerous synchrotrons, however these are very domain specific and cannot handle such unstructured data. We have developed a data flow service, metadatastore, that manages experimental data in NSLS-II beamlines. This service enables data analysis and visualization clients to access this service either directly or via databroker api in a consistent and partition tolerant fashion, providing a reliable and easy to use interface to our state-of-the-art beamlines.

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WEPGF071

Python Scripting for Instrument Control and Online Data Treatment

controls, interface, experiment, software

869

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

Scripting is an important feature of instrument control software. It allows scientists to execute a sequence of tasks to run complex experiments, and it makes a software developers' life easier when testing and deploying new features. Modern instrument control applications require easy to develop and reliable scripting support. At ANSTO we provide a Python scripting interface for Gumtree. Gumtree is an application that provides three features; instrument control, data treatment and visualisation for neutron scattering instruments. The scripting layer has been used to coordinate these three features. The language is simple and well documented, so scientists require minimal programming experience. The scripting engine has a web interface so that users can use a web browser to run scripts remotely. The script interface has a numpy-like library that makes data treatment easier. It also has a GUI library that automatically generates control panels for scripts. The same script can be loaded in both the workbench (desktop) application and the web service application for online data treatment. In both cases a GUI will be generated with similar look and feel.

Poster WEPGF071 [3.069 MB]

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WEPGF093

CXv4, a Modular Control System

controls, network, software, hardware

915

D. Bolkhovityanov, P.B. Cheblakov, F.A. Emanov
BINP SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia

CX control system is used at VEPP-5 and several other BINP facilities. CX version 4 is designed to provide more flexibility and enable interoperability with other control systems. In addition to device drivers, most of its components are implemented in a modular fashion, including data access at both client and server sides. The server itself is a library. This approach allows clients to access several different control systems simultaneously and natively (without any gateways). CXv4 servers are able to provide data access to clients from diverse CS architectures/protocols, subject to appropriate network module being loaded. The server library, coupled with "null link" client-server access module, allows to create standalone monolythic programs for specific small applications (such as test benches and device test screens/utilities) using the same ready code from large-scale control system but without its complexity. CXv4 design principles and solutions are discussed and first deployment results are presented.

Poster WEPGF093 [0.752 MB]

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WEPGF100

DRAMA 2 - An Evolutionary Leap for the DRAMA Environment for Instrumentation Software Development

status, interface, software, controls

934

T.J. Farrell, K. Shortridge
AAO, North Ryde, Australia

The DRAMA Environment provides an API for distributed instrument software development. It originated at the Anglo-Australian Observatory (now Australian Astronomical Observatory) in the early 1990s, in response to the need for a software environment for large distributed and heterogeneous systems, with some components requiring real-time performance. It was first used for the AAO's 2dF fibre positioner project for the Anglo-Australian Telescope. 2dF is still in use today, but has changed dramatically over time. DRAMA is used for other AAO systems and is or has been used at various other observatories looking for a similar solution. Whilst DRAMA has evolved and many features were added, there had been no big changes. It was still a largely C language based system, with some C++ wrappers. It did not provide good support for threading or exceptions. Ideas for proper thread support within DRAMA have been in development for some years, but C++11 has provided many features which allow a high quality implementation. The opportunity provided by C++11 has been taken to make significant changes to the DRAMA API, producing a modern and more reliable interface to DRAMA, known as DRAMA2.

Poster WEPGF100 [5.729 MB]

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WEPGF107

Multi-Host Message Routing in MADOCA II

controls, network, operation, free-electron-laser

954

T. Matsumoto, Y. Furukawa, K. Okada
JASRI/SPring-8, Hyogo-ken, Japan

MADOCA II is a next generation of Message And Database Oriented Control Architecture (MADOCA) and implemented into control system of SPring-8 and SACLA data acquisition (DAQ) system since 2013. In 2014, SACLA introduced a third beam line to increase the capacity of experiments. Then sophisticated control architecture needed to be developed to prevent miss operations among beamlines. In this paper, multi-host message routing in MADOCA II and its application to SALCA DAQ system to solve the problem is presented. In SACLA DAQ system, a master server was added which intermediates control messages between clients and equipment management servers. Since the access control can be centralized to the master server, reliable operation can be had by avoiding the influence by accidental modification of DAQ setting by end-users. The multi-host message routing was implemented to add an extension in MADOCA II by forwarding specific message objects to other hosts. Some technical issues related to messaging loop and time delay, are also addressed. It is also planned to utilize this technique to other cases in BL at SPring-8 where access control under firewall is required.

Poster WEPGF107 [0.762 MB]

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WEPGF118

Use of Tornado in KAT-7 and MeerKAT Framework

software, controls, framework, operation

977

C.C.A. de Villiers, B. Xaia
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, 3rd Floor, The Park, Park Road, Pinelands, Cape Town, South Africa, 7405.
The KAT-7 and MeerKAT radio telescope control systems (www.ska.ac.za) are built on a rich Python architecture. At its core, we use KATCP (Karoo Array Telescope Communications Protocol), a text-based protocol that has served the projects very well. KATCP is supported by every device and connected software component in the system. However, its original implementation relied on threads to support asynchronous operations, and this has sometimes complicated the evolution of the software. Since MeerKAT (with 64 dishes) will be much larger and more complex than KAT-7, the Control and Monitoring (CAM) team investigated some alternatives to classical threading. We have adopted Tornado (www.tornadoweb.org) as the asynchronous engine for KATCP. Tornado, popular for Web applications, is built on a robust and very efficient coroutine paradigm that in turn is based on Python's generators. Co-routines avoid the complexity of thread re-entrancy and lifetime management, resulting in cleaner and more maintainable user code. This paper will describe our migration to a Tornado co-routine architecture, highlighting the benefits and some of the pitfalls and implementation challenges we have met.
*www.tornadoweb.org.

Poster WEPGF118 [6.066 MB]

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WEPGF133

TINE Studio, Making Life Easy for Administrators, Operators and Developers

controls, operation, database, interface

1017

P. Duval, M. Lomperski
DESY, Hamburg, Germany
J. Bobnar
Cosylab, Ljubljana, Slovenia

A mature control system will provide central services such as alarm handling, archiving, location and naming, debugging, etc. along with development tools and administrative utilities. It has become common to refer to the collection of these services as a 'studio'. Indeed Control System Studio (CSS)* strives to provide such services independent of the control system protocol. Such a 'one-size-fits-all' approach is likely, however, to focus on features and behavior of the most prominent control system protocol in use, providing a good fit there but perhaps offering only a rudimentary fit for 'other' control systems. TINE** is for instance supported by CSS but is much better served by making use of TINE Studio. This paper reports here on the rich set of services and utilities comprising TINE Studio.
* http://www.controlsystemstudio.org
** http://tine.desy.de

Poster WEPGF133 [2.528 MB]

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WEPGF135

Using the Vaadin Web Framework for Developing Rich Accelerator Controls User Interfaces

controls, framework, interface, real-time

1025

K.A. Brown, T. D'Ottavio, W. Fu, S. Nemesure
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA

Funding: Work supported by Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC under Contract No. DE-SC0012704 with the U.S. Department of Energy
Applications used for Collider-Accelerator Controls at Brookhaven National Laboratory typically run as console level programs on a Linux operating system. One essential requirement for accelerator controls applications is bidirectional synchronized IO data communication. Several new web frameworks (Vaadin, GXT, node.js, etc.) have made it possible to develop web based Accelerator Controls applications that provide all the features of console based UI applications that includes bidirectional IO. Web based applications give users flexibility by providing an architecture independent domain for running applications. Security is established by restricting access to users within the local network while not limiting this access strictly to Linux consoles. Additionally, the web framework provides the opportunity to develop mobile device applications that makes it convenient for users to access information while away from the office. This paper explores the feasibility of using the Vaadin web framework for developing UI applications for Collider-Accelerator controls at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Poster WEPGF135 [0.990 MB]

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WEPGF137

Adopting and Adapting Control System Studio at Diamond Light Source

controls, interface, Windows, framework

1032

M.J. Furseman, N.W. Battam, T.M. Cobb, I.J. Gillingham, M.T. Heron, G. Knap, W.A.H. Rogers
DLS, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

Since commissioning, Diamond Light Source has used the Extensible Display Manager (EDM) to provide a GUI to its EPICS-based control system. As Linux moves away from X-Windows the future of EDM is uncertain, leading to the evaluation of Control System Studio (CS-Studio) as a replacement. Diamond has a user base accustomed to the interface provided by EDM and an infrastructure designed to launch the multiple windows associated with it. CS-Studio has been adapted to provide an interface that is similar to EDM's while keeping the new features of CS-Studio available. This will allow as simple as possible a transition to be made to using CS-Studio as Diamond's user interface to EPICS. It further opens up the possibility of integrating the control system user interface with those in the Eclipse based GDA and DAWN tools which are used for data acquisition and data analysis at Diamond.

Poster WEPGF137 [4.177 MB]

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WEPGF142

Advanced Matlab GUI Development with the DataGUI Library

software, interface, controls, status

1040

S.M. Meykopff
DESY, Hamburg, Germany

On the DESY campus Matlab is a widely used tool for creating complex user interfaces. Although the on-board GUI tools are easy to use and provide quick results, the generated low-level code lacks uniformity and advanced features like automatic verification and conversion of input and output data. These limitations are overcome by the newly developed DataGUI library. The library is based on the model-view-controller software pattern and supports enhanced data handling, undocumented Matlab GUI elements, and configurable resizing of the user interface. An outlook on features of the upcoming release is also presented.

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WEPGF145

A Structured Approach to Control System GUI Design for the Solaris Light Source

software, controls, operation, TANGO

1044

V. Juvan, I. Dolin'ek, T. Humar, M. Pavleski
Cosylab, Ljubljana, Slovenia
P.P. Goryl
Solaris, Kraków, Poland

In the framework of delivering control system services to the Solaris synchrotron light source, Kraków, Poland, Cosylab realized a comprehensive set of controls GUIs, using a structured approach. The goals of using this architecture are threefold. The first is to achieve reliable, predictable and consistent behaviour of the controls software. The second is that it is easy to deploy and maintain through scripting. The third is that it is future-proof by providing extensibility, using dedicated templates. The system is based on a configuration database, populated with devices, device specifics and device groups (clusters of devices performing specific operations). The GUIs are dynamically generated from this configuration. For the synoptic views, TANGO-standard JDraw and its configuration are integrated into the framework. Existing GUIs, written in PyTango can be easily adapted to function as part of this system. The compelling user benefits are high usability and life-time management through controlled upgrade and extension. For new big physics projects this GUI control program offers a customizable solution for any TANGO based control system.

Poster WEPGF145 [4.620 MB]

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WEPGF146

GUI Style Guide for Control System Applications at ESS

controls, background, software, EPICS

1047

F. Amand, M. Pavleski, M. Pleško
Cosylab, Ljubljana, Slovenia
L. Fernandez
ESS, Lund, Sweden

To help developers create consistent-looking control system application GUIs, the European Spallation Source Integrated Control Systems group asked Cosylab to develop a Style Guide document. Its purpose is to avoid that GUIs needlessly diverge and make the end-result of all screens combined look harmonious, even if GUIs have been developed over several years by many contributors. Also it will speed up development, by letting developers start from design patterns, rather than starting "from a blank page". The document defines a set of basic panel sizes, containing a 960px-style grid for consistent organization of content. It also defines color scheme and font usage, in-line with the overall ESS corporate communications manual, with the addition of signal colors. In addition it shows example screens to serve as GUI design patterns for typical screen types such as engineering screens, control applications and synoptic screens. It concludes by setting rules and recommendations for the usage of automation symbols and display of engineering and physical units. The document is further complemented by a separate document with Usability Guidelines for Human-Machine interfaces.

Poster WEPGF146 [1.866 MB]

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WEPGF148

Unifying All TANGO Control Services in a Customizable Graphical User Interface

controls, TANGO, framework, interface

1052

S. Rubio-Manrique, G. Cuní, D. Fernández-Carreiras, C. Pascual-Izarra, D. Roldán
ALBA-CELLS Synchrotron, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
E. Al-Dmour
MAX-lab, Lund, Sweden

TANGO is a distributed Control System with an active community of developers. The community features multiple services like Archiving or Alarms with an heterogeneous mix of technologies and look-and-feels that must be integrated in the final user workflow. The Viewer and Commander Control Application (VACCA) was developed on top of Taurus to provide TANGO with the user experience of a commercial SCADA, keeping the advantages of open source. The Taurus GUI application enables scientists to design their own live applications using drag-and-drop from the widget catalog. The VACCA User Interface provides a template mechanism for synoptic-driven applications and extends the widget catalog to interact with all the components of the control system (Alarms, Archiving, Databases, Hosts Administration). The elements of VACCA are described in this paper, as well as its mechanisms to encapsulate all services in a GUI for an specific subsystem (e.g. Vacuum).

Poster WEPGF148 [1.588 MB]

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WEPGF153

Karabo-GUI: A Multi-Purpose Graphical Front-End for the Karabo Framework

controls, distributed, data-acquisition, software

1063

M. Teichmann, B.C. Heisen, K. Weger, J. Wiggins
XFEL. EU, Hamburg, Germany

The Karabo GUI is a generic graphical user interface (GUI) which is currently developed at the European XFEL GmbH. It allows the complete management of the Karabo distributed control and data acquisition system. Remote applications (devices) can be instantiated, operated and terminated. Devices are listed in a live navigation view and from the self-description inherent to every device a default configuration panel is generated. The user may combine interrelated components into one project. Such a project includes persisted device configurations, custom control panels and macros. Expert panels can be built by intermixing static graphical elements with dynamic widgets connected to parameters of the distributed system. The same panel can also be used to graphically configure and execute data analysis workflows. Other features include an embedded IPython scripting console, logging, notification and alarm handling. The GUI is user-centric and will restrict display or editing capability according to the user's role and the current device state. The GUI is based on PyQt technology and acts as a thin network client to a central Karabo GUI-Server.

Poster WEPGF153 [0.767 MB]

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THHC3O01

The MeerKAT Graphical User Interface Technology Stack

interface, controls, monitoring, framework

1134

M. Alberts, F. Joubert
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 3rd floor, The Park Park Road Pinelands ZA - Cape Town 7405 +27 21 506 7300
The South African MeerKAT radio telescope, currently being built some 90 km outside the small Northern Cape town of Carnarvon, is a precursor to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope and will be integrated into the mid-frequency component of SKA Phase 1. Providing the graphical user interface (GUI) for MeerKAT required a reassessment of currently employed technologies with a strong focus on leveraging modern user interface technologies and design techniques. An extensive investigation was performed to evaluate and assess potential GUI technologies and frameworks. The result of this investigative study identified a responsive web application for the frontend and asynchronous web server for the backend. In particular the AngularJS framework used in combination with Material Design principles, Websockets and other popular javascript layout and imaging libraries, such as D3.js, proved an ideal fit for the requirements of the MeerKAT GUI frontend. This paper will provide a summary of the user interface technology investigation and further expound on the whole technology stack adopted to provide a modern user interface with real time capabilities.

Slides THHC3O01 [10.206 MB]

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THHC3O03

Effortless Creation of Control & Data Acquisition Graphical User Interfaces with Taurus

TANGO, controls, EPICS, interface

1138

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

Creating and supporting Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) for experiment control and data acquisition has traditionally been a major drain of time and resources for laboratories. GUIs often need to be adapted to new equipment or methods, but typical users lack the technical skills to perform the required modifications, let alone to create new GUIs. Here we present the Taurus* framework which allows a non-programmer to create a fully-featured GUI (with forms, plots, synoptics, etc) from scratch in a few minutes using a "wizard" as well as to customize and expand it by drag-and-dropping elements around at execution time. Moreover, Taurus also gives full control to more advanced users to access, create and customize a GUI programmatically using Python. Taurus is a free, open source, multi-platform pure Python module (it uses PyQt for the GUI). Its support and development are driven by an active and welcoming community participated by several major laboratories and companies which use it for their developments. While Taurus was originally designed within the Sardana** suite for the Tango*** control system, now it can also support other control systems (even simultaneously) via plug-ins.
* Taurus Home Page: http://taurus-scada.org** Sardana Home Page: http://sardana-controls.org*** Tango Home Page: http://tango-controls.org

Slides THHC3O03 [23.185 MB]

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THHD3O06

Overview of the Monitoring Data Archive used on MeerKAT

database, interface, monitoring, status

1155

M.J. Slabber
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.
MeerKAT, the 64-receptor radio telescope being built in the Karoo, South Africa, by Square Kilometre Array South Africa (SKA SA), comprises a large number of components. All components are interfaced to the Control and Monitoring (CAM) system via the Karoo Array Telescope Communication Protocol (KATCP). KATCP is used extensively for internal communications between CAM components and other subsystems. A KATCP interface exposes requests and sensors. Sampling strategies are set on sensors, ranging from several updates per second to infrequent updates. The sensor samples are of multiple types, from small integers to text fields. As the various components react to user input and sensor samples, the samples with timestamps need to be permanently stored and made available for scientists, engineers and operators to query and analyse. This paper present how the storage infrastructure (dubbed Katstore) manages the volume, velocity and variety of this data. Katstore is comprised of several stages of data collection and transportation. The stages move the data from monitoring nodes to storage node to permanent storage to offsite storage. Additional information (e.g. type, description, units) about each sensor is stored with the samples.

Slides THHD3O06 [29.051 MB]

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