ProShell – The MedAustron Accelerator Control Procedure Framework

MedAustron is a centre for ion-therapy and research in currently under construction in Austria. It features a synchrotron particle accelerator for proton and carbon-ion beams. This paper presents the architecture and concepts for implementing a procedure framework called ProShell. Procedures to automate high level control and analysis tasks for commissioning and during operation modelled with Petri-Nets and user code is implemented with C#. It must be possible to execute procedures and monitor their execution progress remotely. Procedures include starting up devices and subsystems in a controlled manner, configuring, operating O(1000) devices and tuning their operational settings using iterative optimization algorithms. Device interfaces must be extensible to accommodate yet unanticipated functionalities. The framework implements a template for procedure specific graphical interfaces to access device specific information such as monitoring data. Procedures interact with physical devices through adapter software components that implement one of the following interfaces: (1) state-less or (2) state-driven device interface. Components can extend these device interfaces following an objectoriented single inheritance scheme to provide augmented, device-specific interfaces. As only two basic device interfaces need to be defined at an early project stage, devices can be integrated gradually as commissioning progresses. We present the architecture and design of ProShell and explain the programming model by giving the simple example of the ion source spectrum analysis procedure.