Development of a Power Supply Control System and Virtual Simulation Based on Docker

A proton therapy facility (HUST-PTF) based on a superconducting cyclotron is being developed by Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) and China Academy of Atomic Energy (CIAE). The beam transport system in this facility provides the required beam for the treatment rooms. The beamline control system (BCS) manages the operation of the degrader, beamline magnet power supplies (PS), diagnostics devices, etc. For additional security, BCS utilizes the OPC UA as the distributed control protocol. Since the PS controllers adopt a TCP communication protocol, an OPC UA server with TCP driver is developed as a gateway and front controller for PS control. In order to adapt fast beam-energy change, the "list-trigger" strategy is applied to the PS control. BCS downloads the respective current value lists to PS controllers before the treatment, and then triggers the PS controllers by pulse signals to alter the operation current to the next value in the list during the treatment. It is vital to decide when the current regulation process is complete in the transitional period, BCS should update the current values more frequent than the steady state. Therefore, the OPC UA server adopts the node dynamic refresh scheme. A virtual simulation based on docker followed by a thorough analysis are conducted on the PS control system, where the results show the node refresh time of the OPC UA server meets the PS control requirement. The virtual simulation is also proved to be cost-saving and reliable for control system tests and worth promoting.