Published 9 months ago.
EPICS AT S[&]T
The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) is a set of software tools, applications and libraries used to control high-end scientific experiments such as particle accelerators, telescopes or nuclear reactors. Examples include the Argonne National Laboratory for High Energy in Chicago, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Stanford Linear Accelerator and the Berlin Electron Synchrotron. EPICS defines a software architecture to manage control systems as a distributed database of industrial components, using traditional client/server and publish/subscribe software paradigms.
At S[&]T we decided to use EPICS in the development of our Leak Localization Software for ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor). ITER is an international experiment to demonstrate the viability of nuclear fusion energy for commercial purposes. As part of the design, the reaction tokamak is contained in a cryostat vacuum chamber that may occasionally suffer from leaks. Residual gas analyzers (RGA) placed strategically within this chamber will signal when a leak occurs. Our software aims to help operators detect these leaks when they happen and use advanced methods to pinpoint its location, thus reducing downtime and operational costs. As the control system for ITER will be based on EPICS, our software interfaces in this manner to sensor data, receiving live readings and storing these for further analysis.
Illustration 1: Leak Localization Software reading real-time sensor data via EPICS
The environment in which our prototype runs is a Linux workstation x86. The latest version of EPICS Base R3.14.11 can be downloaded from the website. Once uncompressed, the EPICS_HOST_ARCH environment variable needs to be set to the appropriate architecture, in our case linux-x86, and then make will take care of compiling the libraries and tools.
For software development purposes and simulation, the EPICS base distribution comes equipped with a softIoc tool which simulates an I/O control component. This tool is configurable with a text database that defines values and exposes them to be accessed in real-time by EPICS-enabled software such as caget or caput. Our Leak Localization Software interfaces with the sensors configured in this database and displays their position and current reading according to the information that is stored in the database and exposed by EPICS' softIoc. When our software is ready to be deployed, interfacing with the actual control system will be transparent.
Illustration 2: Leak Localization Software analyzing stored data
For more information about EPICS, you may consult the EPICS Official Website.
For more detailed information on our Leak Localization Software and it's integration with EPICS, contact Napoleon Cornejo: cornejo [at] stcorp.nl.
Further technical documentation can be found at the following websites:
EPICS Official Website
Tutorials and Documentation
ITER Website
CODAC & EPICS in ITER
EPICS at SLAC