[en] Instrument control at ISIS is in the process of migrating from a mainly locally developed system to an EPICS based system. The new control system, called IBEX, was initially used during commissioning of a new instrument prior to a long maintenance shutdown. This first usage has provided valuable feedback and significant progress has been made on enhancing the system during the facility maintenance period in preparation for the move onto production use. Areas that will be of particular interest to scientists in the future will be linking feedback from live data analysis with instrument control and also providing a simple and powerful scripting interface for facility users. In this paper we will cover the architecture and design of the new control system, our choices of technologies, how the system has evolved following initial use, and our plans for moving forward. (author)

[en] The General Universal Powder Diffractometer (GPPD) is one of the three neutron spectrometers during the first phase of China Spallation Neutron Source. It generates radiation during its operation; therefore, a personal protection system is designed to protect the safety of workers. This paper mainly introduces the design principles, control zone division and system architecture of GPPD, and the interlocking PLC system, interlocking key system and interlocking access control system are promoted in detail. In addition, the processes of entering, exiting and clearing the control zones are provided specifically. Finally, the current situations of debugging and operation are summarized. (authors)

[en] Under the EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System) software framework, a prototype vacuum control system was developed for China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS). The interface between vacuum instrumentations (Gauges and Pump controllers) and EPICS is realized using a MOXA embedded industrial computer running embedded Linux system and EPICS system. Interlocking and protection of equipment is realized in YOKOGAWA PLCs, and an embedded Linux controller, on the same base unit as the I/O modules is used to run EPICS system to make the data of PLCs go straight into the EPICS system. Experiment results show that the CSNS prototype vacuum control system has high real-time performance and good stability. (authors)

[en] To help developers create consistent-looking control system application GUIs, the European Spallation Source Integrated Control Systems group asked Cosylab to develop a Style Guide (SG) document. Its purpose is to avoid that GUIs needlessly diverge and make the end-result of all screens combined look harmonious, even if GUIs have been developed over several years by many contributors. Also it will speed up development, by letting developers start from design patterns, rather than starting “from a blank page”. The document defines a set of basic panel sizes, containing a 960px-style grid for consistent organization of content. It also defines a color scheme and font usage, in-line with the overall ESS corporate communications manual, with the addition of signal colors. In addition it shows example screens to serve as GUI design patterns for typical screen types such as engineering screens, control applications and synoptic screens. It concludes by setting rules and recommendations for the usage of automation symbols and display of engineering and physical units. The document is further complemented by a separate document with Usability Guidelines for Human-Machine interfaces. (author)

[en] The China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) ion source control system was developed under the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) software framework, In order to save, retrieve and analyze the historical data of various controlled devices in the CSNS ion source laboratory, a channel archiver based on MySQL was set up. On the basis of brief introduction of the CSNS ion source control system and the channel archiver based on Relational Database (RDB), the hardware and software implementation of the channel archiver based on MySQL for the CSNS ion source laboratory was described in detail. (authors)

[en] Low-dimensional moderators were designed for the European Spallation Source (ESS), and the same concepts can be applied to compact sources. At ESS, quasi two-dimensional (2D) high-brightness moderators will serve all the instruments of the initial suite. The design of the moderators is influenced by several factors, such as the layout of the facility, the requirements for beam extraction, and the number of instruments; these constraints led to the choice of the 2D 'butterfly' moderator for ESS. In an accelerator-based compact source, such moderators can be designed in an even more efficient way than for high-power sources, taking advantage of the lower heat loads and of the more compact arrangement of the target-moderator system, which gives more freedom in the optimization of the geometrical setup. Some promising design options such as the presence of a pre-moderator or a 2-target configuration have been explored

[en] Micro/nanofibers that are created by direct-writing using an electrospinning (ES) technique have aroused much recent attention, owing to their intriguing physical properties and great potential as building blocks for micro/nanoscale devices. In this work, a wavy direct-writing (WDW) process was developed to directly write wavy micro/nanostructures suitable for the fabrication of micro/nanoscale devices. The low voltage WDW technique is anticipated to be useful for a broad range of applications including flexible/stretchable electronics, micro optoelectronics, nano-antennas, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and biomedical engineering. (paper)

[en] Highlights: • A use case example of RIO/FlexRIO design methodology is described. • Ion source device is controlled and monitored by means EPICS IOCs. • NIRIO EPICS device support demonstrates that is able to manage RIO devices. • Easy and fast deployment is possible using RIO/FlexRIO design methodology using NIRIO-EDS. • RIO/FlexRIO technology and EPICS are a good combination for support large scale experiments in fusion environments. - Abstract: Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) is a software tool that during last years has become relevant as a main framework to deploy distributed control systems in large scientific environments. At the moment, ESS Bilbao uses this middleware to perform the control of their Ion Source Hydrogen Positive (ISHP) project. The implementation of the control system was based on: PXI Real Time controllers using the LabVIEW-RT and LabVIEW-EPICS tools; and RIO devices based on Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology. Intended to provide a full compliant EPICS IOCs for RIO devices and to avoid additional efforts on the system maintainability, a migration of the current system to a derivative Red Hat Linux (CentOS) environment has been conducted. This paper presents a real application case study for using the NIRIO EPICS device support (NIRIO-EDS) to give support to the ISHP. Although RIO FPGA configurations are particular solutions for ISHP performance, the NIRIO-EDS has permitted the control and monitoring of devices by applying a well-defined design methodology into the previous FPGA configuration for RIO/FlexRIO devices. This methodology has permitted a fast and easy deployment for the new robust, scalable and maintainable software to support RIO devices into the ISHP control architecture.

[en] As accelerators are becoming increasingly powerful, the requirement of a reliable machine protection system is apparent to avoid beam-induced damage to the equipment. A missed detection of a hazard is undesirable as it could lead to equipment damage on very short time scales. In addition, the number of false beam trips, leading to unnecessary downtime, should be kept at a minimum to achieve user satisfaction. This paper describes a method for predicting and mitigating these faults, based on the architecture of the system. The method is greatly influenced by the IEC61508 standard for functional safety for the industry and implements a Failure Mode, Effects, and Diagnostics Analysis (FMEDA). It is suggested that this method is applied at an early stage in the design phase of a high-power accelerator, so that possible protection and mitigation can be suggested and implemented in the interlock system logic. The method described in this paper is currently applied at the European Spallation Source and the results follow from the analysis on the Beam Interlock System of this facility. (author)

[en] In this article we present a proof of concept of using an evolutionary strategy in Δ E − E identification procedure on simulated data. The algorithm combines a generative model of Δ E − E relation and a Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolutionary Strategy (CMA-ES). The CMA-ES is a stochastic and derivative-free method employed to search parameter space of the model by means of a fitness function. The article describes details of the method along with results of an application on simulated labeled data.