Study On Virtual Control System For Cyclotrons

Because of its compact structure and low energy dissipation, Cyclotrons are widely used in fundamental research for nuclear physics, bioscience, medical diagnosis and therapy, especially in isotopes production. But to design and manufacture the cyclotron is a complicated project for the big investment, long period and high risk. So we can use virtual prototyping in the traditional method of design and manufacture for the cyclotron. By this method the risk of the cyclotron design is reduced to almost nil. The virtual control system is an important module in the cyclotron virtual prototyping. The virtual control system helps us to design and simulate the control algorithms and logic of cyclotrons in a short period. And it is very helpful to optimize the cyclotron virtual prototyping and amend the performance of the control system. In addition, the virtual control system which combined with virtual reality techniques can be applied to train operators of cyclotron. In this paper the task of cyclotron control system is analyzed in detail at first. Then based on the characteristic of cyclotron the distributed control system software structure is proposed using the knowledge of software engineering. The distributed control system has three layers: the first layer is operator console and 3D visualization; the second layer is constituted mainly by database and its management system; the third layer is cyclotron subsystem models. All of this parts the operator console software and database is discussed mainly. LabVIEW is employed to develop human machine interface, sequential control, safety interlock and PID controller. The access of SQL Server and LabVIEW is also designed. The system has high reliability and extensibility. It can simulate processes during cyclotron running with well-designed HMI. The study of cyclotron virtual control system is the need of cyclotron virtual prototyping. And it is significant to improve the develop level of cyclotron control system.