LLNL, Livermore, California, USA
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) uses powerful lasers to compress targets, to study high energy density physics. Sophisticated diagnostics are placed close to the targets to record the results of each shot. The placement of these diagnostics relative to the target is critical to the mission, with alignment tolerances on the order of 500 microns. The integration of commercial laser-based survey instruments into the NIF control system has improved diagnostic alignment in many ways. The Advanced Tracking Laser Alignment System (ATLAS) project incorporates commercial Faro laser tracker instruments into the diagnostic factory and the target chamber, improving alignment accuracy over prior systems. The system uses multiple retroreflectors mounted on each of the diagnostic positioners to translate to a 6D position in the NIF target chamber volume. This enables a closed loop alignment process to align each diagnostic. This paper provides an overview of how the laser tracker is used in diagnostic alignment, and discusses challenges met by the control system to achieve this integration.
LLNL, Livermore, California, USA
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the world's largest and most energetic laser experimental facility with 192 beams capable of delivering 1.8 megajoules and 500-terawatts of ultraviolet light to a target. To aid in NIF control system troubleshooting, the commercial product Splunk was introduced to collate and view system log files collected from 2,600 processes running on 1,800 servers, front-end processors, and embedded controllers. We have since extended Splunk's access into current and historical control system configuration data, as well as experiment setup and results. Leveraging Splunk's built-in data visualization and analytical features, we have built custom tools to gain insight into the operation of the control system and to increase its reliability and integrity. Use cases include predictive analytics for alerting on pending failures, analyzing shot operations critical path to improve operational efficiency, performance monitoring, project management, and in analyzing and monitoring system availability. This talk will cover the various ways we've leveraged Splunk to improve and maintain NIF's integrated control system.
LLNL-ABS-728830
LLNL, Livermore, California, USA
Established control systems for scientific experimental facilities offer several levels of user interfaces to match domain-specific needs and preferences of experimentalists, operational and engineering staff. At the National Ignition Facility, the low-level device panels address technicians' need for comprehensive hardware control, while Shot Automation software allows NIF Shot Director to advance thousands of devices at once through a carefully orchestrated shot sequence. MATLAB scripting with NIF Layering Toolbox has enabled formation of intricate Deuterium-Tritium ice layers for fusion experiments. The latest addition to this family of user interfaces is the Target Area Alignment Tool (TAAT), which guides NIF operators through hundreds of measurement and motion steps necessary to precisely align targets and diagnostics for each experiment inside of the NIF's 10-meter target chamber. In this paper, we discuss how this new tool has integrated familiar spreadsheet calculations with intuitive visual aids and checklist-like scripting to allow NIF Process Engineers to automate and streamline alignment sequences, contributing towards NIF Shot Rate enhancement goals.
LNLS, Campinas, Brazil
Brazil is building Sirius, the new Brazilian synchrotron light source which will be the largest scientific infrastructure ever built in Brazil and one of the world's first 4th generation light laboratory. Mogno, the future X-ray nano and microtomography beamline is being designed to execute and process experiments in only few seconds. For this reason, prototypes and automated systems have being tested and implemented in the current Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) imaging beamline (IMX). An industrial robot was installed to allow fast sample exchange through an easy-to-use graphical user interface. Also, scripts using Python and Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) were implemented for automatic sample alignment, measurement and reconstruction. In addition, a flow cell for study dynamics and behaviour of fluids at the rock pore scale in time resolved experiments (4D tomography) is being projected.
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
University of Malta, Information and Communication Technology, Msida, Malta
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA
Stony Brook University, Computer Science Department, Stony Brook, New York, USA
A series of versatile on-axis X-ray microscopes with large working distances, high resolution and large magnification have been developed for in-situ sample alignment and X-ray beam visualization at beam-lines at NSLS-II [1]. The microscopes use reflective optics, which minimizes dispersion, and allows imaging from Ultraviolet (UV) to Infrared (IR) with specifically chosen objective components (coatings, etc.) [2]. Currently over seven reflective microscopes have been procured with several installed at NSLS2 beam-lines. Additional customizations can be implemented providing for example dual-view with high/low magnification, 3-D imaging, long working range, as well as ruby pressure system measurement. The microscope camera control frequently utilizes EPICS areaDetector. In specialized applications python programs integrate EPICS camera control, with computer vision, and EPICS motion control for goniostat centering or object detection applications.
[1] K. J. Gofron, et. al.; AIP Conf. Proc. 1741, 030027-1-030027-4; doi: 10.1063/1.4952850.
[2] K. J. Gofron, et. al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 649, 109 (2011).
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
SLAC, Menlo Park, California, USA
The hard x-ray split and delay (HXRSnD) system at the Linear Coherent Light Source (LCLS) was designed to allow for experiments requiring two-pulse based x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy. The system consists of eight silicon crystals split between two optical branches, with over 30 degrees of freedom. To maintain system stability and safety while easing system operation, we expand the LCLS Skywalker software suite to provide a python-based automation scheme that handles alignment, operations and engineer notification. Core safety systems such as collision avoidance are processed at the controller and Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) layer. Higher level functionality is implemented using a stack of open-source python packages (ophyd, bluesky, transitions) which provide a comprehensive and robust operational environment consisting of virtual motors, plans and finite state machines (FSM).
LNLS, Campinas, Brazil
Three-dimensional image reconstruction in X-ray computed tomography (XRCT) is a mathematical process that entirely depends on the alignment of the object of study. Small variations in pitch and roll angles and translational shift between center of rotation and center of detector can cause large deviations in the captured sinogram, resulting in a degraded 3D image. Most of the popular reconstruction algorithms are based on previous adjustments of the sinogram ray offset before the reconstruction process. This work presents an automatic method for shift and angle adjust of the center of rotation (COR) before the beginning of the experiment removing the need of setting geometrical parameters to achieve a reliable reconstruction. This method correlates different projections using Scale Invariant Feature Transform algorithm (SIFT) to align the experimental setup with sub-pixel precision and fast convergence.