Supervisory, hierarchical control for a multimodular ALMR

This paper describes the directions and present status of research in supervisory control for multimodular nuclear plants at ORNL as part of DOE's advanced controls program ACTO. The hierarchical supervisory structure envisioned for a PRISM-like supervisor closest to the process actuators and how it has actually been implemented for demonstration in a network of CPU's is presented next. Two demonstrations of supervisory control with an expert system are also described, one for control of a plant with a single reactor and turbine, the other for control of a plant with three reactors and one turbine. An appendix contains the mathematical basis for the novel approach to large scale system decomposition we have used in the demonstrations of supervisory distributed control of the single reactor plant. 6 refs., 5 figs