Control System Toolkit Research Articles

Open source Ch Control System Toolkit and web‐based control system design for teaching automatic control of linear time‐invariant systems

AbstractThe Ch Control System Toolkit (CCST) is a software package for the design and analysis of control systems. It is a C/C++ class with member functions for solving control problems in a user‐friendly C/C++ interpreter, Ch. Based on the CCST, a Web‐based Control System Design and Analysis System (WCSDAS), and a Web‐based Controller/Compensator Design Module (WCCDM), have been developed. In this article, using the CCST, WCSDAS, and WCCDM for teaching automatic control of linear time‐invariant systems is presented. With the CCST, students are able to solve control problems with only a few lines of C/C++ code. The CCST can also be used to develop various interactive utility programs that will assist students in learning control systems without any programming requirements. With the Web‐based WCSDAS and WCCDM tools, students can interactively design and analyze control systems via a Web browser. The CCST, WCSDAS, and WCCDM are open source software packages. These software tools have been used for teaching undergraduate control courses at the University of California, Davis and Michigan Technological University. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 21: 95–112, 2013

An Object-Based Software Package for Interactive Control System Design and Analysis

Ch is an embeddable C/C++ interpreter. It was developed to allow software developers to use one language, anywhere and everywhere, for any programming task. Ch supports C99, a latest C standard ratified in 1999, and contains salient features for two and three dimensional plotting and numerical computing for applications in engineering and science. Developed in Ch, Ch Control System Toolkit provides a control class with member functions for object-based interactive modeling, analysis, and design of linear time-invariant control systems. The software package, available for downloading on the web, has been widely used in industry to solve practical engineering problems and in universities for instructional improvement. The design and implementation of Ch Control System Toolkit are described in this paper. Two application examples of control system design and analysis using Ch Control System Toolkit demonstrate its power and simplicity.

A new finite-state machine queuing tool for the "EPICS" control system toolkit

A new sequencing tool, the finite-state machine queueing tool (FSQT) for the EPICS control system toolkit, is presented, and its design and implementation are described. The advantages of applying this new tool in a new release of our magnetic measurements test-bench application are discussed. FSQT was originally conceived to overcome the limitations of the equivalent EPICS tool (the Sequencer) and considered a complementary alternative. A performance comparison between them is also shown. This new utility has been presented to the EPICS collaboration and it is currently under evaluation.

The CEBAF accelerator control system: migrating from a TACL to an EPICS based system

CEBAF is in the process of migrating its accelerator and experimental hall control systems to one based upon EPICS, a control system toolkit developed by a collaboration among several DOE laboratories in the US. The new system design interfaces existing CAMAC hardware via a CAMAC serial highway to VME-based I/O controllers running the EPICS software; future additions and upgrades will for the most part go directly into VME. The decision to use EPICS followed difficulties in scaling the CEBAF-developed TACL system to full machine operation. TACL and EPICS share many design concepts, facilitating the conversion of software from one toolkit to the other. In particular, each supports graphical entry of algorithms built up from modular code, graphical displays with a display editor, and a client-server architecture with name-based I/O. During the migration, TACL and EPICS will interoperate through a socket-based I/O gateway. As part of a collaboration with other laboratories, CEBAF will add relational database support for system management and high level applications support. Initial experience with EPICS is presented, along with a plan for the full migration which is expected to be finished next year.