Fractional order plasma position control of the STOR-1M tokamak

This work deals with plasma position estimation, modeling, and control for the `Saskatchewan Torus 1 - Modified (STOR-1M)´ tokamak. The basic operating mechanism and system details are presented initially to provide the reader with a complete understanding of the plant and the control objective. The data required for plasma position estimation and the methodology used is briefly presented, followed by plasma position modeling. An effective method for offline plasma position estimation is presented. The simulated results for position control using a standard (Ziegler-Nichols) ZN-PID controller and a (fractional order) FO-PI controller are compared with each other. The problems that arise when dealing with such a fast-operating and challenging system are detailed throughout. The results obtained using analog hardware to emulate the plasma position and purely analog FO-PI control are also included.