Implementation and Review of the Axisymmetric Equilibrium System of RFX-Mod2 within the MARTe2 Framework

A major refurbishment of the toroidal complex of the RFX-mod device is in progress and it will include the removal of the Inconel vacuum vessel and a modification of the stainless steel supporting structure to be made vacuum-tight. The axisymmetric equilibrium control in RFX-mod was responsible for the control of the plasma current, horizontal and vertical position along with its stability and the plasma shape. The new implementation framework, both hardware and software, is described. The system has been fully reviewed and modified, if needed, for its prospective use in RFX-mod2. In order to run tests in an operation-like context, the updated system has also been implemented in the MARTe2 framework, to be deployed for the real-time applications of RFX-mod2. The results of the previous versions were reproduced and the cycle-time requirements were met

Sviluppo di algoritmi di grid data clustering basati su metodi statistici

Lo scopo del clustering è quindi quello di individuare strutture nei dati significative, ed è proprio dalla seguente definizione che è iniziata questa attività di tesi , fornendo un approccio innovativo ed inesplorato al cluster, ovvero non ricercando la relazione ma ragionando su cosa non lo sia. Osservando un insieme di dati ,cosa rappresenta la non relazione? Una domanda difficile da porsi , che ha intrinsecamente la sua risposta, ovvero l’indipendenza di ogni singolo dato da tutti gli altri. La ricerca quindi dell’indipendenza tra i dati ha portato il nostro pensiero all’approccio statistico ai dati , in quanto essa è ben descritta e dimostrata in statistica. Ogni punto in un dataset, per essere considerato “privo di collegamenti/relazioni” , significa che la stessa probabilità di essere presente in ogni elemento spaziale dell’intero dataset. Matematicamente parlando , ogni punto P in uno spazio S ha la stessa probabilità di cadere in una regione R ; il che vuol dire che tale punto può CASUALMENTE essere all’interno di una qualsiasi regione del dataset. Da questa assunzione inizia il lavoro di tesi, diviso in più parti. Il secondo capitolo analizza lo stato dell’arte del clustering, raffrontato alla crescente problematica della mole di dati, che con l’avvento della diffusione della rete ha visto incrementare esponenzialmente la grandezza delle basi di conoscenza sia in termini di attributi (dimensioni) che in termini di quantità di dati (Big Data). Il terzo capitolo richiama i concetti teorico-statistici utilizzati dagli algoritimi statistici implementati. Nel quarto capitolo vi sono i dettagli relativi all’implementazione degli algoritmi , ove sono descritte le varie fasi di investigazione ,le motivazioni sulle scelte architetturali e le considerazioni che hanno portato all’esclusione di una delle 3 versioni implementate. Nel quinto capitolo gli algoritmi 2 e 3 sono confrontati con alcuni algoritmi presenti in letteratura, per dimostrare le potenzialità e le problematiche dell’algoritmo sviluppato , tali test sono a livello qualitativo , in quanto l’obbiettivo del lavoro di tesi è dimostrare come un approccio statistico può rivelarsi un’arma vincente e non quello di fornire un nuovo algoritmo utilizzabile nelle varie problematiche di clustering. Nel sesto capitolo saranno tratte le conclusioni sul lavoro svolto e saranno elencati i possibili interventi futuri dai quali la ricerca appena iniziata del clustering statistico potrebbe crescere

Using Python Modules in Real-Time Plasma Systems for Fusion

One of the most important applications of sensors is feedback control, in which an algorithm is applied to data that are collected from sensors in order to drive system actuators and achieve the desired outputs of the target plant. One of the most challenging applications of this control is represented by magnetic confinement fusion, in which real-time systems are responsible for the confinement of plasma at a temperature of several million degrees within a toroidal container by means of strong electromagnetic fields. Due to the fast dynamics of the underlying physical phenomena, data that are collected from electromagnetic sensors must be processed in real time. In most applications, real-time systems are implemented in C++; however, Python applications are now becoming more and more widespread, which has raised potential interest in their applicability in real-time systems. In this study, a framework was set up to assess the applicability of Python in real-time systems. For this purpose, a reference operating system configuration was chosen, which was optimized for real time, together with a reference framework for real-time data management. Within this framework, the performance of modules that computed PID control and FFT transforms was compared for C++ and Python implementations, respectively. Despite the initial concerns about Python applicability in real-time systems, it was found that the worst-case execution time (WCET) could also be safely defined for modules that were implemented in Python, thereby confirming that they could be considered for real-time applications

A web-based, dynamic metadata interface to MDSplus

We introduce the concept of a Fusion Data Grid and discuss the management of metadata within such a Grid. We describe a prototype application which serves fusion data over the internet together with metadata information which can be flexibly created and modified over time. The application interfaces with the MDSplus data acquisition system and it has been designed to capture metadata which is generated by scientists from the post-processing of experimental data. The implementation of dynamic metadata tables using the Java programming language together with an object-relational mapping system, Hibernate, is described in the Appendix

High-performance data transfer for full data replication between iter and the remote experimentation centre

A high-performance data transfer method has been developed for the Remote Experimentation Centre (REC) of ITER in Japan for the first time. The developed technology shows the technical feasibility to establish the REC with full data replication between ITER and REC for remote experiments. Test results showed that it achieved a data transfer rate of approximately 7.9 Giga-bits per second (Gbps) on a 10-Gbps network. The new double-layer storage structure can accelerate the storage read/write speed up to 2 GByte/s. Moreover, the Internet and a layer-2 virtual private network (L2VPN) comparison tests demonstrated that the latter is superior in both security and speed. This technology shows great potential for near real-time full data replication between ITER and REC, which may provide a new style of world-wide remote experimentation

Parallel universal access layer: A scalable I/O library for integrated tokamak modeling

The paper describes a parallel-I/O extension of the Universal Access Layer, a multi-language interface used for exchange of standardized data objects between Integrated Tokamak Modeling (ITM) codes. Although our evaluation focuses on Lustre, the general idea also applies to other parallel file systems. A snapshot of the current implementation is given, followed by an analysis of user and system requirements. The design derived from the serial version of the UAL is described, and emphasized features such as the ability to choose between serial and parallel I/O are explained. Performance tests comparing the implementation to other I/O methods are made to analyze the impact of the implementation. The outcome shows that the new implementation not only enables the I/O of datasets with several GB in size but also speeds up the write rate by a factor of 13 in the best case