Turn-key Applications for Accelerators with LabVIEW-RADE

In the accelerator domain there is a need of integrating industrial devices and creating control and monitoring applications in an easy and yet structured way. The LabVIEW-RADE framework provides the method and tools to implement these requirements and also provides the essential integration of these applications into the CERN controls infrastructure. We present three examples of applications of different nature to show that the framework provides solutions at all three tiers of the control system, data access, process and supervision. The first example is a remotely controlled alignment system for the LHC collimators. The collimator alignment will need to be checked periodically. Due to limited access for personnel, the instruments are mounted on a small train. The system is composed of a PXI crate housing the instrument interfaces and a PLC for the motor control. We report on the design, development and commissioning of the system. The second application is the renovation of the PS beam spectrum analyzer where both hardware and software were renewed. The control application was ported from Windows to LabVIEW-Real Time. We describe the technique used for a full integration into the PS consoles.The third example is a control and monitoring application for the “CLIC two beam test stand”. The application accesses CERN front-end equipment through the CERN middleware, CMW, and provides many different ways to view the data. We conclude with an evaluation of the framework based on the three examples and indicate new areas of improvement and extension.