Overview of
Advancements in
Plasma Control
Supervision
Kevin Meyer Ph.D. (University of Cape Town, South Africa)
Cosylab
[email protected]
Tel.: +386 1 477 66 76
Web: www.cosylab.com
2
Contents
 About Cosylab

Work for ITER
 General Supervisory Systems
Incl. Plasma Control
 Using ITER as a reference

 Supervisory System Data
 Supervisory Systems: What they do
Plasma Control System
 Central Safety System
 Central Interlock System

 In Detail…

ITER Supervision and Automation System
 Conclusions
3
Contents
 About Cosylab

Work for ITER
 General Supervisory Systems
Incl. Plasma Control
 Using ITER as a reference

 Supervisory System Data
 Supervisory Systems: What they do
Plasma Control System
 Central Safety System
 Central Interlock System

 In Detail…

ITER Supervision and Automation System
 Conclusions
4
About Cosylab
 Cosylab
Specialised software and hardware development
 ~150 Employees, more than ½ are Engineers/Physicists
 System integration (control systems and instrumentation)


Core technologies


EPICS, TANGO, LabVIEW, CSS, WinCC OA and FPGA
Certifications


ISO 9001:2015
ISO 13485:2003
Production of control and information
systems for therapeutic and diagnostic
medical devices
http://www.cosylab.com
5
What Cosylab does for ITER
 Since 2008

Controls System Division
 CODAC (Control, Data Access and Communication)


brain and central nervous system of ITER
Connects >30 major plant systems, >1,000,000 signals
 CODAC Core System

Software suite to support development for easier final integration
 Cosylab


Development of CODAC
Core System
User Support and Training
 Me

Operations Applications
For configuration and
automation tasks
 ITER Real-time framework
 ITER Supervision

6
Contents
 About Cosylab

Work for ITER
 General Supervisory Systems
Incl. Plasma Control
 Using ITER as a reference

 Supervisory System Data
 Supervisory Systems: What they do
Plasma Control System
 Central Safety System
 Central Interlock System

 In Detail…

ITER Supervision and Automation System
 Conclusions
7
Supervisory Systems
 Experiments

acquire data to
Validate hypotheses
 Test control algorithms
 etc.


Designed by Scientists
 Control components/DAQ systems


Supervisory
Magnetic Coil
Power Supply
Neutral Beam
Programmed by System Experts
Use actuators/sensors to execute their
program
 Supervisory systems


High-level with oversight
Like the conductor in an orchestra
 Many supervisory systems:

Work together to execute experiment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Symphony_Orchestra
8
Supervisory Systems at ITER
 Plasma Control System

real-time control of a pulse
 Central Safety System

protects people and the environment
 Central Interlock System

protects the machine
 Supervision and Automation System

co-ordinates everything


Full science pulse
Other parallel activities
Testing
 Commissioning

9
Contents
 About Cosylab

Work for ITER
 General Supervisory Systems
Incl. Plasma Control
 Using ITER as a reference

 Supervisory System Data
 Supervisory Systems: What they do
Plasma Control System
 Central Safety System
 Central Interlock System

 In Detail…

ITER Supervision and Automation System
 Conclusions
Supervisory System Data
10
Overview
 Plasma Control System

Needs to be configured

Pulse schedule
 Central Safety System

Provides supervisory input to PCS/SUP
 Central Interlock System


Provides supervisory input to PCS/SUP
Can be configured
 Supervision and Automation System


Basically, needs to know everything about everything!
It needs to know:
What Plasma Control System expects to do
 Central Safety System state
 Central Interlock System state



Can recommend changes.
Settings for participating plant systems.
Supervisory System Data
11
Plasma Control System
 High-level experiment expectations are defined early.

e.g. to achieve a certain fusion power
 Phases are necessary

Intermediate steps
 Hypothetical ITER values

From top






Fusion output power (Pfus)
Plasma current (Ip)
Poloidal field flux (PF flux)
Fueling rate (DT fuel)
Input heating Power (Paux)
Phases





PF Magnetization
Plasma Initiation
Heating
Burn
…
Supervisory System Data
12
Pulse Schedule
 Aggregated information



Configuration
Required systems
etc.
 Composition: Collaborative effort



Science: High-level parameters
System Specialists: How to achieve them
Diagnosticians: How to measure them
 Assumptions:


System availability
Configuration
 Includes

Configuration



Values
Rules
Validation checks
 All that is needed…
Supervisory System Data
13
Supervision and Automation System
 Needs to know:
What Plasma Control System expects to do
 Expected Central Safety System state
 Expected Central Interlock System state



Pulse Schedule
Can recommend changes.
Settings for participating plant systems.
 To perform automated tasks
Rules & Scripts
Script: automates mundane tasks
 Rule: encodes behavior for the tasks

Developed in collaboration
between the CODAC staff
and plant system experts
14
Contents
 About Cosylab

Work for ITER
 General Supervisory Systems
Incl. Plasma Control
 Using ITER as a reference

 Supervisory System Data
 Supervisory Systems: What they do
Plasma Control System
 Central Safety System
 Central Interlock System

 In Detail…

ITER Supervision and Automation System
 Conclusions
Plasma Control System
Overview
 Generally:

“plasma control supervision” = high-level algorithms to steer
the plasma.
 Layered hierarchy of real-time tasks:
Detailed plant system control
 Parameter Computation
 Higher-level Computation
Plasma Phase
Computation

 Supervisory Actions
Phase control
 Real-time protection
Plasma Current
Computation


Shape Controller
“minor” issues → e.g. “hotspots”
Magnetic Coil
Power Supply
Magnetic
Diagnostic
Supervision
15
Plasma Control System
16
Real-time Protection
 Low-risk protection
 Provides fine control

Implemented in software on fast
computers
 Example: Hotspot detection

JET, WEST, Wendelstein 7X


Thermal Hotspot detected
Adjust heating systems

if possible
LPM III (actively cooled) shot 11044 14 may 93
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Temperature(°C)
Time(s)
0
5
10
17
Central Safety System & Central
Interlock System [1]
 Two critical systems
 Central Safety System



Protect People
Protect the Environment
Further divided:
Occupational Safety
 Nuclear Safety

 Central Interlock System

Protect the machine
 Both can:


interrupt the current pulse
Inhibit the next pulse
18
Central Safety System & Central
Interlock System [2]
 Implemented with certified, dedicated controllers

With redundancy
 Logic – special logic controllers
Dedicated sensors
 Outputs (typically Boolean)


PASS/FAIL or OK/Not OK
 Logic → “limited”

“If the transformer yard gate is open”
 Control → “Heavy handed”

“Prevent power to the transformers”
 Critical:

Quench detection → Fast shutdown of plasma
19
Contents
 About Cosylab

Work for ITER
 General Supervisory Systems
Incl. Plasma Control
 Using ITER as a reference

 Supervisory System Data
 Supervisory Systems: What they do
Plasma Control System
 Central Safety System
 Central Interlock System

 In Detail…

ITER Supervision and Automation System
 Conclusions
Supervision and Automation
20
Overview
 Gets the machine ready
 Uses information from:




“Pulse Schedule”
Safety and Interlocks
Running systems
Own subsystems
 High-level checks

Orchestration
Configuration
Timing
Monitoring
Defers to appropriate sub-systems
 Maximize utilization:

Single (“Full” Science) or Parallel Operation (Commissioning/Testing)
 Maximize Availability / Minimize wastage

Time and Resources
Supervision and Automation
21
Supervision Activities
 Execute Pulse Sequence
 Pre-Pulse
Fetch
 Check
 Configure
 Verify

Fetch
Postcheck
Pulse Sequence
 During Pulse

Hand-over

Post-check

Handover
Configure
Monitoring Systems
 Post-Pulse

Check
Updating Engineering Budgets
Verify
Supervision and Automation
22
Check
 Critical Checks

Is “Current System” compatible with
desired operation?
Fetch
 Detailed Checks:

Postcheck
Check
Hand-over
Configure
Require specialized knowledge and
information

E.g. Pulse specifies 10MA plasma current
Are the required power supplies available?
 Is the responsible person licensed to
execute this pulse?

Verify
Supervision and Automation
23
Configure
 Configure Plant Systems
 Configure Interlocks

Fetch
Via Engineer in charge
Postcheck
Check
Hand-over
Configure
Verify
Supervision and Automation
24
Check, Verify
 To detect problems
 If a problem is detected


Raises notification
Option for engineer-in-charge to override
and continue
 Important: Early days


Fetch
Postcheck
Check
Handover
Configure
Supervision checks may be buggy ;)
Defer to Engineer-in-Charge
Verify
Supervision and Automation
25
Post-check
 After pulse
 Update Engineering Budgets

Examples:


neutron damage
mechanical stress
 Restart of pulse sequence

Fetch
Postcheck
Check
Handover
Configure
Unless inhibited by safety or interlocks
Verify
Supervision and Automation
26
Utilization
 In general, two utilization modes:
Full “Science” Pulse
 One of many Parallel Activities


e.g. Testing and Commissioning
 Full “Science” Pulse
Whole machine is involved
 Full Pulse Sequence

Fetch
Postcheck
Check
Handover
Configure
Verify
Supervision and Automation
27
Utilization: Parallel Activities
 During Testing and Commissioning
Inefficient to do only one task at a time:
 Need Parallel tasks, e.g.



Neutral Beam Injector testing
Coil Power Supply testing
 Supervision provides support:

Resource Locks & Exclusion checks

Magnetics diagnostics (background calibration)


Blocks coil energization
With monitors

Just in case some-one manually operates an “excluded” system
28
Contents
 About Cosylab

Work for ITER
 General Supervisory Systems
Incl. Plasma Control
 Using ITER as a reference

 Supervisory System Data
 Supervisory Systems: What they do
Plasma Control System
 Central Safety System
 Central Interlock System

 In Detail…

ITER Supervision and Automation System
 Conclusions
29
Conclusions
 Plasma Control System


Implemented as multi-layer real-time algorithms
Executes the pulse schedule



Controls all plant systems
Intrinsically provides plasma control supervision
Includes real-time protection

Low-risk
 Other Supervisory Systems:



Safety
Interlocks
Supervision and Automation


Gets the machine ready → full pulse sequence
Parallel activities where possible



To Maximize availability!
To Minimize wastage!
Automates repetitive, manual tasks.
THANK YOU!
Kevin Meyer
Cosylab
[email protected]
Tel.: +386 1 477 66 76
Web: www.cosylab.com