Implementation of an Operator Intervention System for Remote Control ofthe RIKEN 28GHz Superconducting ECR Ion Sourcea)
A. Uchiyama,1,b) K. Furukawa,2 Y. Higurashi,3 and T. Nakagawa3
1

The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, 1-1 Oho, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, KEK, 1-1 Oho, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan
3
Nishina Center for Accelerator Based Science, RIKEN, Hirosawa 2-1, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
2(Presented XXXXX; received XXXXX; accepted XXXXX; published online XXXXX)
The control system for the RIKEN 28GHz superconducting electron cyclotron resonance ion source (28GHzSC-ECRIS) consists of a distributed control system based on the experimental physics and industrial controlsystem (EPICS). To maintain the beam quality for the long beam-service time at the RIBF, beam tuning toprevent subtle changes in the 28GHz SC-ECRIS conditions is required. Once this is achieved, it should thenbe possible to check conditions and operate the ion source at any time. We have designed a web-based
operational interface (OPI) to remotely control the ion source, but for access and control from severallocations, suitable access security, policies, and methods are required. We thus implemented an operator
intervention system that makes it possible to safely access the network externally with the permission of onsite accelerator operators in the control room.
I. INTRODUCTION
The performance of the ion source is an importantfactor in determining the overall performance of a heavy
ion accelerator. At the RIKEN radioactive isotope beamfactory (RIBF), the 28GHz superconducting electron
cyclotron resonance ion source (28GHz SC-ECRIS) wasconstructed in 2009 in an effort to increase the uraniumion beam intensity1. The stability of the beam is importantin terms of beam service availability for experiments at theRIBF2, and periodic fine tuning of parameters such as theRF power and gas pressure is required to ensure a highintensity beam that is stable over a long period. It istherefore common for ion source developers to telephone
the on-site accelerator operator to check the status of the28GHz-SCECRIS while they are not present at the facility.
However, ion source developers could obtain moredetailed information about the status of the source, relay
operational instructions, and maintain the beam quality if itwas possible to access the control system from outside thefacility. As there will be differences between the terminals
used in the accelerator control room and the remotelocations, a cross-platform software environment should beadopted (for example, less common software such as the X
Window System may not necessarily be installed on aremote computer, as it is on the control-room Linux PCs).
In this regard, web-based technology has an advantage inthat any device with a browser, e.g., a PC, mobile phone,tablet, or TV, can be employed, and web-based technology
has been shown to be a useful means of disseminatinga)

Contributed paper published as part of the Proceedings of the 15th
International Conference on Ion Source, Chiba, Japan, September, 2013.
b)a-uchi@riken.jp.

accelerator and beam status information from the RIBF
control system 3.
Traditional web applications using asynchronous
JavaScript and XML (Ajax) lack the interactivity neededto act as an operator interface (OPI) for some of theaccelerator hardware4. However, the WebSocket protocol
can be implemented to improve the interactiveperformance. This protocol achieves bidirectional
communication between a web server and browser, unlikethe periodic polling access of Ajax. The bidirectional
communication can be utilized to develop an OPI that canboth monitor and control ion-source devices, and we havesuccessfully developed a WebSocket-based client system
to monitor the real-time action of the EPICS-based system
via a web browser 5.
While there are clear advantages to the developedclient system, there are still some problems that needaddressing, namely hazards associated with access via
WebSocket and operational mistakes. Focusing on thelatter, operational mistakes can arise because it is difficult
to give a full picture of the status over the telephone(seeing the RIBF parameters on the control-room PC
displays is of more benefit) and because operating the28GHz SC-ECRIS with no real-time response is difficult,even if the remote operator can access snapshots of thegraphical user interface (GUI) panels as image files. To
prevent operational mistakes from occurring, theaccelerator conditions including the 28GHz-SCECRIS
need to be understood as a whole. As the accelerator
operators in the control room have the best understandingof the RIBF accelerator conditions, their judgment isindispensable to ensure that devices are controlled safely.
The on-site accelerator operator must then be allowed tointervene in the remote operation. The WebSocket-basedclient system is designed so that output control by theremote ion source developer always requires thepermission of an on-site accelerator operator who canintervene at any time.
II. ARCHITECTURE OF THE 28GHz SC-ECRISCONTROL SYSTEMSThe 28GHz SC-ECRIS control system is anexperimental physics and industrial control system(EPICS)-based distributed control system that is part of theRIBF control system6. EPICS is an open-source softwaretool kit for the development of distributed control systems
for large experimental physics facilities such as
accelerators and telescopes7,8. The tool kit was initiallydeveloped by the Los Alamos National Laboratory and theArgonne National Laboratory and continues to be
developed in collaboration with various other laboratories.
The EPICS-based system was adopted at the RIKEN
Accelerator Research Facility (RARF) in 20019; thisfacility is now the injector section of the RIBF.
The EPICS-based client system sends or receives data
to/from an input/output controller (IOC) using a dedicatedprotocol known as channel access (CA). Process variables(PVs) corresponding to input/output commands for
hardware device are manipulated in the IOC. The GUI ofthe OPI runs in the X Window System, while theelectronic logbook and software to view archived data are
web-based systems10.
III. WEBSOCKET-BASED CLIENT SYSTEM
WebSocket was originally designed to be
implemented as a part of HTML5 and was standardized as
RFC6455 by the IETF in 201111. WebSocket realizes aninteractive response using bidirectional communicationand thus compensates for the disadvantage that could not
be eliminated in traditional HTML. Web browsers such asFirefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer can be used as across-platform environment with the implementation of aWebSocket-based OPI. This allows the user to access theOPI from not only a PC-based web browser but also otherdevices such as Android and Apple mobile phones. Aftersatisfying the conditions for interactive access to theEPICS-based system, we implemented the WebSocket
server, which connects to the EPICS IOC via CA, as a
web-based OPI. Figure 1 shows a chart of the wholesystem. The WebSocket-based client system consisted ofHTTP server, HTML and JavaScript files, and WebSocket
server. The WebSocket server gets the parameters as PVs
from EPICS IOC by calling CA API.

FIG 1: System diagram of WebSocket-based OPI in
EPICS-based Control System.
IV. IMPLEMENTATION OF
INTERVENTION SYSTEM

THEOPERATOR

The main part of operator intervention system consistsof a PV gateway provided by the EPICS collaboration, adatabase, and web applications12. An outline of the system
is as follows (See figure 2). The on-site accelerator
operator first gives permission to every output of the PVs
corresponding to the hardware of the 28GHz SC-ECRIS
control system. If the PVs have not been grantedpermission, then the operator intervention system always
rejects the output command in the CA protocol layer. The
system policy of the operator intervention system can besummarized as follows.
● For monitoring the status of the 28GHz SC-ECRIS
using the WebSocket-based OPI, the permission of the onsite operator is not necessary as long as authentication withan SSL connection has been completed.
● When the remote user controls the outputs via
WebSocket, they send EPICS PVs requests to the operator
intervention system.
● The on-site operator judges whether the requested PVs
are available for control.
● If control is possible, a command to accept is sent;
otherwise, a refuse command is sent.
● In sending the accept command, the on-site operator
set the duration time and controllable upper and lowerlimits.
● The on-site operator can stop the remote operation at
any time if, for example, problems with the accelerator
arise.
● Logs of all the outputs via the operator intervention
system and WebSocket access are checked by the on-siteaccelerator operators.

without serious problems. We confirmed that the output
instructions were not reached to EPICS IOC without onsite operator’s permission. The networking performance istolerable level so that our system can be used fromnetworks provided by almost all Japanese internet service
providers13. We have to note that the debugging of HTMLand JavaScript programs proves to be more important toprevent the operational mistakes than other general web
applications. In case of EPICS native OPI written in C
language, the compiler should verify the incomplete syntaxof the source code. On the other hand, even when theHTML or JavaScript codes have a bug, the code may berun on the web browser in some situations.
VI. CONCLUSION

FIG 2: Outline of the Operator Intervention System. It wasimplemented between WebSocket server and EPICS IOCs.

We have implemented an operator intervention system
for the EPICS-based 28GHz SC-ECRIS control system foran evaluation. The on-site operators manage the digital andanalog outputs for remote operation, and access will bedenied in the network protocol layer if certain criteria are
not met. The purpose of our work was to realize safe
remote control of the 28GHz SC-ECRIS via a WebSocketbased OPI, and after confirming the usability and safety ofthe system in September 2013, we expect that the operator
intervention system will be adopted for the 28GHz SCECRIS control system. We also expect that this system
may be implemented in other ECRIS and RIBF controlsystems.
1

FIG 3: Test environment with another network emulated
WAN. The gray area show the implemented system.
V. RESULT OF THE TEST SYSTEM
Remote operation of the 28GHz SC-ECRIS control
system was tested using a wide area network (WAN)
emulator with both the remote user and on-site operator inthe same control room but accessing different network
environments (See figure 3). The WAN emulator createsanother network with a performance of 2.0 Mbps and 200
msec latency. As a result, we were able to successfully
operate part of the 28GHz SC-ECRIS (gas valves, RFpower, position of an electrode, and so on) remotely

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