The ATLAS Alarm Helper

Abstract

The Detector Safety System is the last line of defence to protect the ATLAS detector against abnormal and potentially even unforeseen situations. It is designed to return the detector to a safe state based on predefined actions triggered by alarms which are triggered on their part by specific sets of conditions. Every alarm whether it results in an action taken or not is followed up by the operations team that assesses the criticality, takes countermeasures and identifies the point of failure. From experience abnormal situations can result either from faults or from side effects of planned interventions which were either not properly identified despite the mandatory planning and review or where a mistake during execution occurred. In many cases there are multiple interventions ongoing simultaneously in order to profit from shutdown periods. The rapid analysis of alarms while the incident is ongoing is often complicated due to the complexity of the ATLAS detector and its infrastructure and the large number of responsible groups and experts. A new Alarm Helper tool was designed to assist the operation team, particularly the operator in the control room responsible for infrastructure and safety (SLIMOS – Shift Leader in Matters of Safety), by providing real-time information about ongoing interventions and the possible related causes of failure. The new tool will combine historical events, documentation, and limited knowledge about ongoing interventions. It extends the Expert System which visualizes and simulates infrastructure inter-dependencies and allows to trace faults or alarms to a list of potential points of failure. The new tool also proposes which experts should be contacted in the particular circumstances.