Integrating EPICS and MDSplus

Mastrovito, D.; Davis, W. M.; Dong, J.; Roney, P.; Sichta, P.

doi:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2006.04.042

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The necessary training and documentation will be provided by ITER partners. [14] evaluates the ITER approach on the SPA-2 project (2 switching power amplifier) for slow control only. It identified one major hurdle: using Step7 with EPICS is time consuming.…”

Section: 4mentioning

confidence: 99%

Connecting programmable logic controllers (PLC) to control and data acquisition a comparison of the JET and Wendelstein 7-X approach

Hennig

Team

Kneupner

et al. 2012

Fusion Engineering and Design

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The use of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) for automation of electromechanical processes is an industrial control system technology. It is more and more in use within the fusion community. Traditionally PLC based systems are operated and maintained using proprietary SCADA systems (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition). They are hardly ever integrated with the in fusion control and data acquisition systems.An overview of the state of the art in fusion is given in the article.At JET an inhouse "black box protocol" approach has been developed to communicate with any external system via a dedicated http based protocol. However, a PLC usually can't be modified to implement this special protocol. Hence, a software layer has been developed that interfaces a PLC by implementing the PLC specific communication part on one side and the black box protocol part on the other side. The software is completely data driven i.e. editing the data structure changes the logic accordingly. It can be tested using the web capability of the black box protocol. Multiple PLC types from different vendors are supported, thus multiple protocols to interface the PLC are in use. Depending on the PLC type and available tools it can be necessary to program the PLC accordingly.Wendelstein 7-X uses another approach. For every single PLC a dedicated communication from and to CoDaC is implemented. This communication is projected (programmed) in the PLC and configurable (data driven) on the CoDaC side. The protocol is UDP based and observed via timeout mechanisms. The use of PLCs for Wendelstein 7-X is standardized. Therefore a single implementation on the CoDaC side allows communication with any PLC. Measured data from the PLC is archived in the mass data store. Set points from CoDaC can be visualized from within the PLC visualization environment.A detailed description, discussion and comparison of the JET and W7-X approaches is given.

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Section: 4mentioning

confidence: 99%

Connecting programmable logic controllers (PLC) to control and data acquisition a comparison of the JET and Wendelstein 7-X approach

Hennig

Team

Kneupner

et al. 2012

Fusion Engineering and Design

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“…In high-energy physics experimental devices, where EPICS is typically used as control framework, diagnostics data acquisition has normally its own, separate development, and the same happens in the existing fusion devices that base their control system on EPICS [6,7]. MDSplus [8] is a software package for data management, supporting advanced concepts such as independence of platform and underlying hardware, selfdescription data, and data driven model.…”

Section: Epics [3]mentioning

confidence: 99%

EPICS – MDSplus integration in the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility

Luchetta

Manduchi

Barbalace

et al. 2011

Fusion Engineering and Design

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“…The novelty is not the combined usage of the two environments in fusion [5] [6] [6], but the level of their integration.…”

Section: Software Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Data acquisition in the ITER Ion Source experiment

Luchetta¹,

Manduchi²,

Barbalace³

et al. 2010

2010 17th IEEE-NPSS Real Time Conference

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The Ion Source experiment, called SPIDER, is the first experiment to be realized in the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility under construction at Consorzio RFX, Padova, Italy. Its data acquisition system will provide the collection of around one thousand signals at a sampling rate ranging from a few Sample/s to 10 MSample/s and of diagnostics and inspection images produced at a frame frequency from 10 to 150 frame per second, for beam durations of up to one hour.As the final product of the Test Facility will be the ITER Heating Neutral Beam Injector, we decided follow the ITER CODAC guidelines. Therefore the EPICS system provided in the CODAC Core System has been assessed and adopted in plant control. In addition to EPICS, the MDSplus system will be adopted for the overall data management. MDSplus can handle a rich set of data types and offers support for both local and remote data access in a variety of languages, a feature not fully supported by EPICS. All experiment data in SPIDER will be maintained in a single MDSplus database containing both experiment configuration and acquired data. The seamless integration of EPICS and MDSplus in a single system requires the development of some new tools, namely: A Channel Archiver which provides storage into MDSplus pulse files of data produced by EPICS Input Output Controllers (IOC) and exported as Process Variables via Channel Access; a set of IOC records providing direct access from IOC into MDSPlus files; A Channel Access Server to export MDSplus data as EPICS Process Variables, making them directly accessible by IOCs.We expect that the integration of the two frameworks will result in a system that combines the best features from each system, i.e. the management of distributed Process Variables via channel access and the IOC concept for EPICS, the sophisticated data management and remote access for MDSplus.

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Integrating EPICS and MDSplus

Cited by 7 publications

References 7 publications

Connecting programmable logic controllers (PLC) to control and data acquisition a comparison of the JET and Wendelstein 7-X approach

Connecting programmable logic controllers (PLC) to control and data acquisition a comparison of the JET and Wendelstein 7-X approach

EPICS – MDSplus integration in the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility

Data acquisition in the ITER Ion Source experiment

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