During Long Shutdown 1, 18 Large Hadron Collider (LHC) collimators were replaced with a new
design, in which beam position monitor (BPM) pick-up buttons are embedded in the collimator jaws.
The BPMs provide a direct measurement of the beam orbit at the collimators, and therefore can be used to
align the collimators more quickly than using the standard technique which relies on feedback from beam
losses. Online orbit measurements also allow for reducing operational margins in the collimation hierarchy
placed specifically to cater for unknown orbit drifts, therefore decreasing the β and increasing the
luminosity reach of the LHC. In this paper, the results from the commissioning of the embedded BPMs
in the LHC are presented. The data acquisition and control software architectures are reviewed.
A comparison with the standard alignment technique is provided, together with a fill-to-fill analysis of
the measured orbit in different machine modes, which will also be used to determine suitable beam
interlocks for a tighter collimation hierarchy.peer-reviewe
