Title :
EPICS as a MARTe Configuration Environment
Author :
Valc??rcel, Daniel F. ; Barbalace, Antonio ; Neto, Andr?© ; Duarte, Andr?© S. ; Alves, Diogo ; Carvalho, Bernardo B. ; Carvalho, Pedro J. ; Sousa, Jorge ; Fernandes, Hor??cio ; Gon?§alves, Bruno ; Sartori, Filippo ; Manduchi, Gabriele
Author_Institution :
Lab. Associado, Associacao EURATOM/IST, Lisbon, Portugal
Abstract :
The Multithreaded Application Real-Time executor (MARTe) software provides an environment for the hard real-time execution of codes while leveraging a standardized algorithm development process. The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) software allows the deployment and remote monitoring of networked control systems. Channel Access (CA) is the protocol that enables the communication between EPICS distributed components. It allows to set and monitor process variables across the network belonging to different systems. The COntrol and Data Acquisition and Communication (CODAC) system for the ITER Tokamak will be EPICS based and will be used to monitor and live configure the plant controllers. The reconfiguration capability in a hard real-time system requires strict latencies from the request to the actuation and it is a key element in the design of the distributed control algorithm. Presently, MARTe and its objects are configured using a well-defined structured language. After each configuration, all objects are destroyed and the system rebuilt, following the strong hard real-time rule that a real-time system in online mode must behave in a strictly deterministic fashion. This paper presents the design and considerations to use MARTe as a plant controller and enable it to be EPICS monitorable and configurable without disturbing the execution at any time, in particular during a plasma discharge. The solutions designed for this will be presented and discussed.
Keywords :
data acquisition; data communication; distributed control; high energy physics instrumentation computing; multi-threading; networked control systems; real-time systems; CODAC system; EPICS distributed component; EPICS software; ITER tokamak; MARTe configuration environment; channel access; control-and-data acquisition-and-communication; distributed control algorithm; experimental physics-and-industrial control system; hard real-time execution; multithreaded application real-time executor; networked control system; plant controller; plasma discharge; protocol; remote monitoring; standardized algorithm development process; Control systems; Libraries; Monitoring; Plasmas; Protocols; Real time systems; Software; Monitoring systems; middleware; real-time systems;
Journal_Title :
Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on
Conference_Location :
6/2/2011 12:00:00 AM
DOI :
10.1109/TNS.2011.2147799