First Steps in the FTU Migration Towards a Modular and Distributed Real-Time Control Architecture Based on MARTe

Abstract

The Fusion Advanced Studies Torus (FAST) experiment is being proposed by the Italian laboratories as a European satellite Tokamak that will enhance and facilitate the exploitation of ITER like scenarios and technologies. Its size and complexity is comparable to the largest fusion machine in the world: JET. As such, its real time control system will have to meet basic requirements such as a modular and distributed architecture, where different control subsystems can be easily integrated at different times and can operate either independently or in cooperation with other subsystems. Another important feature, which has to be taken into account, is the transparency regarding both the hardware interfacing and the adopted platform. As a test bed, we are currently planning to upgrade the architecture of the Frascati Tokamak Upgrade (FTU) real-time system in order to improve its flexibility and modularity and have decided to adopt the MARTe package to reach our goal. Currently, there are four systems under development at FTU: the LH-Power system; the gas puffing control system; the ODIN Equilibrium Reconstruction system; and the position and current feedback control system (currently in a design phase). This paper will describe the current status and first results of the previously referred systems integration

A new generation of real-time systems in the JET tokamak

“…The merits of the MARTe framework made it become, in the last few years, increasingly adopted and developed [17] by the magnetic confinement fusion community in europe [18]. It is also used in the ISTTOK [19], COMPASS [20] and FTU [21] tokamaks and under consideration for ITER's fast plant system controllers [22].…”

Progress in the migration towards the real-time framework MARTe at the FTU tokamak

“…The software architecture of the LH satellite station has been migrated towards the MARTe architecture [10], the LH tube GAM module first calculates the percentage of the reflected power and then the result of the computation is forwarded to the new feedback system using two different and redundant ways: through a DAC (DAC output GAM) and the real-time network (RTNet output GAM).…”

Pre-Results of the Real-Time ODIN Validation on MARTe Using Plasma Linearized Model in FTU Tokamak

“…It is possible to control a MARTe system through the WebServer service using a standard Internet browser. This makes possible to change the behavior of the system (such as changing the StateMachine state) and to explore the internal properties of some objects [1].…”

“…There exist two identical feedback stations, the online and the backup one, the only difference being that the last one is not connected to the actuators [1]. The hardware architecture is shown in Fig.…”

“…The ADC can be triggered by an external clock (500 kHz at maximum) and can be accessed directly by the XEmbedded XVME-6200 throughout the PCI bus using the Tundra Universe IID chip. A low level driver for the device already exists, and it is responsible for the memory mapping of the Tundra Universe IID chip [1]. The driver provides a set of three functions: one is used to wait the next clock event (by polling the ''ready'' register of the ADC on the memory mapped address of the Tundra Universe IID chip), one to read from the ADC a single channel, and the last one write to the DAC a single channel.…”