Design of LEAF control system

BackgroundLEAF is a complicated and integrated facility, which includes several different subsystems. In order to realize the remote control of field equipment and meet the requirements of the beam commissioning, a LEAF control system has been designed. The developed control system includes the following sub-systems: timing systems, data archiving systems, personnel safety systems, and machine protection systems.
MethodsThe control system for LEAF is developed using the EPICS software toolset and the distributed control architecture. This is designed in a three-layer structure. At the equipment layer, the control of the low-level equipment is mainly done by various industrial controllers, including programmable logic controllers, controllers for serial devices, and motion controllers based on EtherCAT fieldbus. At the middle layer, the Ethernet switches are used to implement a Gigabit local area network. At the operation layer, high-level application software has been developed for the beam commissioning and the operation of the accelerator.
ResultsThe designed system can realize remote monitoring and control of field devices, provide synchronous timing and machine protection for key equipment, and automatically archive historical data for on-site running equipment.
ConclusionThe complete system has a clear structure and stable operation and has been successfully applied to beam commissioning and operation of the LEAF facility.