A LabVIEW-based expandable modular control system with a layered structure for a 3 MV tandem accelerator

Abstract

An expandable modular control system with a layered structure has been developed for our 3MV tandem accelerator and numerous experimental applications. New applications and devices may be added to the system modularly and programmatically, making the system easily upgradeable for future expansion. To facilitate the development of new accelerator applications and maintenance and upgrade of the existing devices, the control system has a four-layer structure. The top layer, consisting of accelerator applications, interfaces with the physicists who develop accelerator applications with high-level device operations without any knowledge of operating the devices electronically. The bottom layer, consisting of physical device drivers, interfaces with the electronics engineers/device driver programmers who develop or maintain the devices/device drivers without any knowledge of accelerator physics. The two middle layers connect the top and bottom layers and provide a platform for expansion of the control system. The higher level layer of the two middle layers consists of logical device drivers that interface with physicists, while the lower level layer consists of logical device drivers that interface with engineers. All applications, physical and logical device drivers are programmed as modules, minimizing the changes in programming that are required when applications and/or devices are changed or upgraded. As a result, adding, removing or replacing a module does not affect the rest of the system, as long as the new module has the same prototype as the replaced module.