29th Symposium on Fusion Technology (SOFT 2016)

P4.083 Standardization of the hard- and software used to operate manipulators at ASDEX Upgrade

8 Sep 2016, 14:20

1h 40m

Foyer 2A (2nd floor), 3A (3rd floor) (Prague Congress Centre)

Board: 83

Poster D. Diagnostics, Data Acquisition and Remote Participation P4 Poster session

Speaker

Pascal de Marne (Max-Planck-Institut fuer Plasmaphysik)

Description

Manipulators are an important tool to position diagnostics or samples near to the plasma without breaking the vacuum of fusion devices. They can be used for different purposes like measuring plasma parameters with electrical or magnetic probes near to the core plasma or to investigate plasma-wall interaction by exposing dedicated samples. ASDEX Upgrade is operating a set of manipulators, the midplane manipulator, the divertor manipulator, the reciprocating x-point probe and two fast ion loss detectors.These manipulators were developed and installed over more than 20 years of operation of ASDEX Upgrade. The hardware and the control systems are based on different platforms. A refurbishment of manipulator systems required for various reasons was used to implement a standardized hard- and software. The current divertor manipulator and the reciprocating x-point probe are completely new constructions and only located at the same place as their predecessors. The old control systems could not be used for the new designs and therefore new control systems had to be built up. The midplane manipulator is more or less unchanged regarding its mechanical setup, but it got a new control system with matching new motors.The new control systems are designed as similar as possible, regarding both maintenance and operation. The manipulators are now driven by servo motors and motor controllers of the same model family, combined with S7 Simatic PLC controls for interface and also to control the peripheral systems like the generation of the vacuum and to connect the manipulators to the ASDEX Upgrade control system.This paper gives an overview about the status and recent updates of the different manipulators and their control systems, their capabilities and their integration into the ASDEX Upgrade framework.