Author: Fabich, A.
Paper Title Page
MOBAUST03 The MedAustron Accelerator Control System 9
 
  • J. Gutleber, M. Benedikt
    CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
  • A.B. Brett, A. Fabich, M. Marchhart, R. Moser, M. Thonke, C. Torcato de Matos
    EBG MedAustron, Wr. Neustadt, Austria
  • J. Dedič
    Cosylab, Ljubljana, Slovenia
 
  This paper presents the architecture and design of the MedAustron particle accelerator control system. The facility is currently under construction in Wr. Neustadt, Austria. The accelerator and its control system are designed at CERN. Accelerator control systems for ion therapy applications are characterized by rich sets of configuration data, real-time reconfiguration needs and high stability requirements. The machine is operated according to a pulse-to-pulse modulation scheme and beams are described in terms of ion type, energy, beam dimensions, intensity and spill length. An irradiation session for a patient consists of a few hundred accelerator cycles over a time period of about two minutes. No two cycles within a session are equal and the dead-time between two cycles must be kept low. The control system is based on a multi-tier architecture with the aim to achieve a clear separation between front-end devices and their controllers. Off-the-shelf technologies are deployed wherever possible. In-house developments cover a main timing system, a light-weight layer to standardize operation and communication of front-end controllers, the control of the power converters and a procedure programming framework for automating high-level control and data analysis tasks. In order to be able to roll out a system within a predictable schedule, an "off-shoring" project management process was adopted: A frame agreement with an integrator covers the provision of skilled personnel that specifies and builds components together with the core team.  
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