EPICS Collaboration Meeting in April 2023

24 Apr 2023, 06:00 → 28 Apr 2023, 17:30 America/Chicago

Fermilab

Organizing Committee

Visiting Fermilab

Fermilab Contact Information

EPICS Collaboration Meeting at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

Monday, 24 April

09:00 → 10:20 Workshop: CS Studio / Phoebus

Convener: Pierrick Hanlet (Fermilab)

Phoebus4PIP-II.pdf

10:20 → 10:40 Coffee Break

10:40 → 12:00 Workshop: Motor Control

Convener: Kevin Peterson (ANL)

Motor_Workshop.pptx

12:00 → 13:00 Lunch: (on your own)

13:00 → 14:30 Workshop: areaDetector

Convener: Mark Rivers (Univ. of Chicago)

13:00 areaDetector Lecture and Demonstration

I will present an overview and demonstration of the areaDetector framework. areaDetector is widely used for interfacing EPICS to a variety of 2-D detectors, including those for visible light imaging, spectroscopy, and X-rays. It has a rich set of plugins for image statistics, transformation, file saving, etc. I will present a demonstration using a simulation detector and a real camera.

Speaker: Mark Rivers (Univ. of Chicago)

areaDetector_talk.pdf

14:30 → 15:00 Coffee Break

15:00 → 17:00 Workshop: EPICS Core

Convener: Michael Davidsaver (Osprey DCS)

15:00 Experiences Adopting EPICS from a New User Perspective for EIC

Perspective gained in the process of learning about EPICS systems and architectures as part of Electron Ion Collider design work will be shared from the point of view of a developer that is new to the ecosystem. Highlights related to positive and negative experiences will be addressed.

Speaker: James Jamilkowski (BNL/EIC)

Experiences_Adopting_EPICS_for_EIC-Core_Workshop-20230424.pdf

15:20 Other content related to EPICS Core

Tuesday, 25 April

09:00 → 10:30 Welcome: Opening Remarks and Presentations

Convener: Eileen Crowley (Fermilab)

09:00 Laboratory Director's Welcome

Speaker: Lia Merminga (FNAL)

09:05 Associate Laboratory Director's Welcome

Speaker: Alexander Valishev (Fermilab)

09:10 While you're here (house rules)

Speaker: Pierrick Hanlet (Fermilab)

EPICS_House_Rules1.pdf

09:25 Introduction to Fermilab and the Fermilab Accelerator Complex

Speaker: Robert Zwaska (Fermilab)

zwaska_epics_v3.pptx

09:45 EPICS for Fermilab's Flagship Project - PIP-II

Speakers: Elvin Harms (Fermilab), Pierrick Hanlet (Fermilab)

EPICS collaboration talk.pdf

EPICS collaboration talk.pptx

EPICSforPIP-II.pdf

10:10 ACORN Project

A brief overview of the ACORN Project and current status.

Speaker: Erik Gottschalk (Fermilab)

ACORN-doc-806-EPICS-Meeting-202304.pdf

10:30 → 11:00 Coffee Break

11:00 → 12:00 Plenary Session: Presentations

Convener: Eileen Crowley

11:00 ESS Controls Status Update

In recent years, the construction of European Spallation Source, including the control system, has progressed very rapidly and we are operating a substantial number of IOCs in production. Our goal from early on has been to apply comprehensively the new emerging features of EPICS; accordingly the talk will cover the status of our use of EPICS 7. Our underlying system architecture, in particular our use of MTCA and our EPICS build and deployment systems will be presented. More details about our software layer will be covered in another talk.

Speaker: Timo Korhonen (European Spallation Source ERIC)

ESS Status Update - EPICS 2023.pptx

11:20 Updates on EPICS Deployment at NSLS-II

Apart from moving from Debian to RHEL as a baseline operating system, the NSLS-II facility has embraced a plethora of new powerful automation and orchestration tools. Changes to how we manage our systems have brought along new considerations and approaches in the areas of EPICS software packaging, distribution, IOC code management, and deployment. The talk covers updates in these areas, and outlines further opportunities to greater standardizing and automating. Specifically outlined are:
1. EPICS base, modules, and tools RPM creation, distribution, and licensing.
2. IOC code management via a monorepo, and specialized tools created to support the workflow.
3. Deployment of select EPICS applications.

Speaker: Anton Derbenev (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

A. Derbenev - EPICS Collab Meeting Apr 2023 - NSLS-II Deployment.pdf

11:40 Background and Development Status of the EIC Common Platform

The Electron Ion Collider Project will involve the deployment of a large number of Front End Computers of a novel SoC design that is intended as a Common Platform across many sub-systems will a spectrum of performance requirements. We'll describe the previous experience building a custom carrier + daughter card platform, the current platform generation designs and statuses for EIC, as well as future development plans that will be needed to operate a large accelerator complex that is currently being developed.

Speaker: James Jamilkowski (BNL/EIC)

EIC_Common_Platform_Overview-20230425.pdf

12:00 → 13:00 Lunch: (on your own)

13:00 → 15:00 Plenary Session: Presentations

13:00 ALS control system status report

ALS has a long history behind. The ALS-U upgrade project is on the way in parallel with the ALS routine operation. The intention of this presentation is to show the recent changes to the ALS control system which are aligned with the ALS-U upgrade project.

Speaker: Miroslaw Dach (LBNL)

ALS controls system status report.pdf

ALS controls system status report.pptx

13:20 Overview of Data and Control Systems at NASA's Armstrong Test Facility

NASA's Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility (ATF, formerly Plum Brook Station) is a 6,400 acre (26 km^2) research campus in Sandusky, Ohio that operates a number of unique world-class test facilities which are used by NASA, other governmental agencies, and the private sector to conduct full service facility and test system preparation for complex and innovative research and flight programs. The test facilities at ATF are used to simulate the conditions of the upper atmosphere, deep space, planetary, lunar environments, and cryogenics. This talk will present a high-level overview of the ATF test facilities and test capabilities and highlight their individual data and control (DAC) system needs. The second part of the talk will describe a recent project at ATF to identify a common client-server DAC SW architecture that will result in safer and more reliable operations across the entire ATF DAC system portfolio and will lower total cost of ownership to ATF (and therefore) our customers.

Speaker: Richard Evans (NASA's Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility)

Introduction to GRC-ATF for EPICS 2023 - 2023-04-24 1500 (final).pptx

13:40 Moving on from VME without Breaking the Bank

Most APS beamlines are using VME crates as a major part of their control system.
The VME hardware is expensive and becoming obsolete, with replacements for many of the above items no longer available. The VxWorks software is also expensive.

I am leading an effort at sector 13 to completely eliminate the 7 VME systems during the dark year.

I plan to install the following to replace the VME systems:
• Galil DMC-4183 motor controllers to replace the OMS-58 and MAXv.
• Moxa terminal servers to replace the VME serial communication modules.
• Measurement Computing USB-CTR08 to replace the Joerger and SIS 3820 scalers and multi-channel scaler functions.
• Measurement Computing USB-3104 to replace the DAC128V for analog output.
• Measurement Computing USB-1808X to replace the IP-330.

The total hardware cost to replace 7 VME systems for 2 FOEs and 5 experimentation stations is less than $150K. This includes more than 370 motor channels.

Speaker: Mark Rivers (Univ. of Chicago)

MovingOnFromVME_2023.pdf

14:00 ADTimePix3

Detectors based on TimePix3 chips are complementary to existing image-based detectors. In addition to the 2D image, the TimePix3 chip allows the collection of time information of each hit down to the nanosecond level. The timing capabilities allow new possibilities in particle and photon data collection, by providing not only characterization of accelerator source but also science related to timed dynamics. The timing capabilities of the TimePix3 detector allow neutron measurements such as energy using Time of Flight mode. EPICS driver for the TimePix3 detector is a major step in the development of the science within modern neutron and synchrotron facilities.

Speaker: Kazimierz Gofron (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

KG_ECM20230425.pdf

14:20 BxB BPM and EPICS interface using the RFSoC FPGA

I will present the RFSoC based 500 MHz BxB Beam Position Monitor development status and epics control system interface.
The RFSoC-based advanced BxB provides many capabilities for measuring BxB beam transients, multi-bunch coupling, bunch charging, and beam trip transients.
Also, Xilinx RFSoC FPGA supports a hard ARM CPU core for interface with EPICS control systems.
I will introduce BxB hardware architecture, FPGA data processing, extensive data capturing, and epics interface for a control system.

Speaker: Kiman Ha (BNL(NSLS-II))

epics_meeting_Apr_2023_Ha.pdf

14:40 Ethernet as a Fieldbus: Scaling Distributed Systems Interfacing with EPICS and ACNET

In order to increase data acquisition rates and to lower complexity at the embedded level, Fermilab Instrumentation is developing a Ethernet field bus to communicate with a centralized middle layer utilizing Redis. Each embedded node will stream data to the middle layer where post processing can be done via micro services in containers. All data, including raw and processed wave forms, will then be presented to the control system. This architecture allows for easy scalability, lowers complexity, and allows easy adaptation to current (ACNET) and future controls systems (EPICS).

Speaker: robert santucci (Fermi Ops)

Ethernet as a Fieldbus- Scaling Distributed Systems Interfacing with EPICS and ACNET.pdf

Ethernet as a Fieldbus- Scaling Distributed Systems Interfacing with EPICS and ACNET.pptx

15:00 → 15:30 Coffee Break

15:30 → 16:50 Plenary Session: Presentations

15:30 CS-Studio Phoebus & Logbook at ESS

ESS moved to CS-Studio Phoebus in 2019 and we have since then worked with the framework together with the community.
We have put in a lot of effort with the Logbook (Olog) and Save & Restore (based on MASAR).

Speaker: Susanne Regnell (European Spallation Source)

1. Create Configuration from Channel Table.mov

2023-04-EPICS-Collaboration-Meeting-CS-Studio-Phoebus-updated.pptx

2. Import Configuration from CSV file.mov

3.Take Snapshot.mov

4.Tag Snapshot.mov

5.Apply Filter.mov

6. Change Threashold.mov

7.Create Composite Snapshot.mov

8.Open Golden Snapshot.mov

9.Restore With Scale.mov

15:50 EPICS and IPv6

IPv6 has been around since 1995, but EPICS has so far only supported IPv4. This will be a high level introduction to IPv6, what basic changes are necessary to existing IPv4 code, and what has been done for PV Access.

Speaker: Kay Kasemir (ORNL/SNS)

2023_EPICS_Meeting_IPv6.pdf

16:10 ACORN Human Factors

ACORN Human Factors: This presentation details an introduction to human factors and how Fermilab is enabling user-centered designs & processes for the ACORN project. Presentation topics include how a combination of design standardization and customization will enable more intuitive operations and reduce cognitive overwhelm & burnout.

Speaker: Rachael Hill (Idaho National Laboratory)

ACORN Human Factors EPICS Collaboration Presentation.pptx

16:30 C2 Data Viewer: Visualization tool for EPICS7 Data Streaming

A high-performance data acquisition system (DAQ) has been under active development to meet APS-U needs. It takes data from underneath FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), and streams it to its downstream users. The APS-U DAQ system software framework is implemented as a major portion of APS-U new control system software infrastructure, which is called C2. To visualize the DAQ data on the fly, a C2 Data Viewer (C2DV) is has been implemented using Python, which can be used for displaying live PV data streams for monitoring, troubleshooting and diagnostics purposes. It is now capable of handling both EPICS pvAccess (PVA) and Channel Access (CA) data, and includes several different applications: a scope viewer for plotting PVA waveforms, an image viewer for displaying Area Detector image data, and a striptool for monitoring PVA as well as CA scalar PVs. In this presentation we discuss various C2DV features, its usage at the Advanced Photon Source, as well as plans for future development.

Speaker: Elaine Chandler (Argonne National Laboratory)

EPICS-collaboration-23-c2dv.pdf

17:00 → 19:00 Reception: Social

Wednesday, 26 April

09:00 → 10:20 Plenary Session: Presentations

09:00 EPICS in Context of Machine Learning, Beam Tuning and Offline Scientific Computing

This talk contextualizes EPICS in accelerator optimization and "quite
big" data experiment support, for other AI/ML session talks. EPICS 7
had the aim of better computing supporting for the next generation of
machines and analytical tools. Many new data types, such as matrices,
tables, images, and statistical descriptions, plus users' own data
types, now supplement the simple scalar and waveform types of the
classic EPICS. New EPICS based computational architectures for
scientific computing are emerging for high-performance data
processing, high fidelity archiving, pipelining, and classically
offline physics. Python and matlab bindings support ML and science
users. The result has been that controls are now being integrated with
multi-particle modelling, machine learning, enterprise databases,
experiment DAQs, and large legacy physics systems.

Speaker: Gregory White (SLAC)

EPICS2023_MLIntro_v2.pptx

EPICS2023_MLIntro_v3.pdf

EPICS2023_MLIntro_v3.pptx

09:20 Introduction to Machine Learning

Machine Learning is a field of study that uses advanced algorithms and mathematical models to enable computers or machines to learn from data and make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed. In ML, data is used as a basis for training algorithms or models, which then analyze the data and identify patterns or relationships within it. These patterns are used to make predictions or decisions when presented with new, unseen data.

For example, imagine you have a dataset of temperature measurements over time, and you want to predict the temperature for a future date. You can use ML algorithms to analyze the historical data, identify patterns in temperature changes, and create a model that can predict future temperatures based on those patterns.

Machine Learning is used in various applications, such as image and speech recognition, autonomous vehicles, predictive analytics, and many more.

Speaker: Gopika Bhardwaj (Fermilab)

GopikaBhardwaj_IntroToML.pptx

09:40 AI/ML hosted on FPGAs at Fermilab

This talk will include

• Discussion on FPGA-based system architectures, used in current AI/ML projects for accelerator applications.
• Lessons learned about interfaces along data signal path will focus on READS project.

Speakers: Jose Rene Berlioz Rivera, M. A. Ibrahim (FNAL -AD/INST)

FPGA_BasedArchitectures_DAQPathways.pdf

10:00 DATASTORE: Time correlated storage and access of experimental data

A high-volume, time-series, database for experimental data. Presentation of initial work carried out by Osprey DCS towards providing a specially designed timeseries database that can ingest and correlate data at high-speed, and can be used to feed ML systems.

Speaker: George McIntyre (Osprey DCS)

datastore presentation.pdf

datastore presentation.pptx

10:20 → 11:00 Coffee Break

11:00 → 12:00 Plenary Session: Presentations

11:00 Machine Learning Operations for Accelerator Control

An overview of Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) for accelerator control.

Speaker: Tia Miceli (Fermilab)

TiaMiceli_MLOps_EPICS2023_20230425.key

TiaMiceli_MLOps_EPICS2023_20230425.pdf

11:20 Experience with Machine Learning Enhanced Modeling and Optimization at SLAC

This talk will cover the use cases, experience, and experimental results from using Machine Learning enhanced modeling and tuning methods at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and collaborating accelerator facilities. These applications range from intelligent online optimization with minimal prior data to deployment of fast-executing surrogate models to predict complicated beam dynamics behavior online. An emphasis will be placed on practical lessons learned and future needs, with an eye toward control system and computing infrastructure.

Speaker: Auralee Edelen (SLAC)

20230425_Edelen_EPICS.pdf

11:40 Optimization of experiment and accelerator performance using beam synchronous EPICS data

Live observation of synchronized accelerator and photon data is crucial for best use of machine development time, and to setup demanding FEL configurations for the users. A Matlab class and a GUI have been developed and used in the last decade at the LCLS to acquire accelerator and photon data from different sources via EPICS and to present them. Data are synchronized on a pulse-to-pulse basis, processed, and displayed with low latency time, thus being useful for discovering correlations, live tuning, and understanding underlying physics while the data are taken. Scans are available by setting EPICS process variables and validating machine status by data timestamp. Consideration on the temporal latency, and the amount of data required for the system to be effective will be given.

Speaker: Alberto Lutman (SLAC)

OptimizationWithLiveSynchronousData.pptx

12:00 → 13:00 Lunch: Lunch on your own

13:00 → 14:00 Plenary Session: Presentations

13:00 ChannelFinder

ChannelFinder started as a simple directory service to address some of the limitations of EPICS's flat name space. Over the past few release the ChannelFinder infrastructure has expanded to provide additional features to manage the configuration of multiple services to supporting a pvAccess name server.

Speaker: Kunal Shroff (Brookhaven National Lab)

Channel Finder.pdf

Channel Finder.pptx

13:20 PVXS in your IOC

Recent work on PVXS, including to as a replacement for pva2pva.

Speaker: Michael Davidsaver (Osprey DCS)

202304-pvxs.odp

202304-pvxs.pdf

13:40 EPICS Base — What's New

EPICS Base 7.0.7 was released in September 2022, and the changes introduced there were described in a talk given by Ralph Lange at the EPICS meeting in Slovenia. This talk will briefly recap the main changes included in 7.0.7 and will then describe what has happened in Base since, including the code and documentation enhancements developed by attendees of the EPICS Codeathon hosted by Diamond in March.

Speaker: Andrew Johnson (Argonne National Laboratory)

EPICS Base — Whats New.pdf

14:00 → 14:30 Group Photo

14:30 → 15:00 Coffee Break

15:00 → 17:00 Plenary Session: Lightning Talks

15:00 Fermilab Accelerator Directorate Robotics Initiative

The Fermilab Accelerator Directorate Robotics Initiative is working to develop and deploy robots in the accelerator tunnels to aid in observation and measurements in harsh environments to reduce personnel exposure and beam-off time. Longer term goals of the collaboration include telemanipulation of parts, autonomous navigation, and automation of repetitive tasks. One possible method of control of the robots involves utilizing the accelerator controls system. Current status of the initiative will be presented along with possible functional requirements required from the controls system to enable these technologies.

Speaker: Brian Hartsell (Fermilab)

20230426 EPICS Collaboration Accelerator Directorate Robotics Initiative - Hartsell.pptx

15:06 EPICS Deployment at Fermilab

Fermilab has not been a traditional EPICS house, though there have been and still are some instances on site. We have now deployed an infrastructure designed to simplify, non-expert building of EPICS applications, both IOCs and user applications using a CI/CD pipeline. The status of this EPICS deployment at Fermilab will be summarized.

Speaker: Dr Pierrick Hanlet (Fermilab)

FNALdeployment-EPICSCollaborationSpring2023.pdf

15:12 EPICS Documentation update

A short overview of the EPICS documentation on the web will be presented, along with some new ideas to make the documentation easier to find and also make it easier to contribute to documentation.

Speaker: Timo Korhonen (European Spallation Source ERIC)

Documentation update.pptx

15:18 OPC UA Device Support - Update

In a collaborational effort (ITER/HZB-BESSY/ESS/PSI), a Device Support for the OPC UA industrial SCADA protocol is under development. Goals, status and roadmap will be presented.

Speaker: Ralph Lange (ITER Organization)

OPC UA Device Support.pdf

OPC UA Device Support.pptx

15:24 (Yet Another) EPICS Diode

To support ITER's remote participation plans while honoring cybersecurity requirements, we are currently developing a new implementation of an "EPICS Diode", mirroring EPICS PVs through a strictly one-directional network connection.

Speaker: Ralph Lange (ITER Organization)

EPICS Diode.pdf

EPICS Diode.pptx

15:30 Report from the 2023 Codeathon

Back in March, Diamond was hosting the 2023 EPICS Codeathon event.

Speakers: Ralph Lange (ITER Organization), Ronaldo Mercado

Report-from-the-2023-Codeathon.pdf

15:36 Ophyd v2

Diamond are working on developing Ophyd v2, part of the Bluesky framework.
Ophyd v2 uses lessons learnt from Ophyd and Malcolm, the hardware scanning engine at DLS.
The key design concerns are modularity, separation of logic and I/O,
easy to implement hardware triggered scanning solutions and a clear migration path.

Speaker: Ronaldo Mercado (Diamond Light Source)

Ophyd v2.pdf

15:42 News from RTEMS for VMEbus systems

Currently there are many new developments for RTEMS and VMEbus CPUs as a basis for EPICS 7.
These are briefly presented here.
The main focus is the support of PowerPC boards like beatnik (MVME6100), MVME3700, MVME5100 etc..
Also new board alternatives on QorIQ basis (MVME2500) are addressed.

Speaker: Heinz Junkes (Fritz Haber Institute)

EPICS_Fermilab.pdf

15:48 The Evolution of Fill Pattern Measurement at NSLS-II

The stored beam was achieved in the Storage Ring at NSLS-II (National Synchrotron Light Source II) in March 2014. Even since then, the beam diagnostics and control system has been providing valuable fill pattern measurement data for machine operation. The control hardware as well as software has evolved over the past decade.

Speaker: Yong Hu (Brookhaven National Lab)

FPM-NSLS2.pdf

15:54 Exploring data acquisition options for distributed timing-synchronized FPGA-generated data

In many facilities there is a need to acquire and store distributed timing-synchronized FPGA-generated data for offline data analysis, fault detection and more recently AI/ML applications. While FPGA devices can easily generate and transmit Gpbs worth of data, the task of acquiring, storing and retrieving them are not trivial. This talk, although not answering this question, tries to explore some options of doing that and asking for feedback and collaboration in ways of achieving that.

Speaker: Lucas Russo (LBNL)

Exploring data acquisition options for distributed timing-synchronized FPGA-generated data_FINAL3.pdf

Exploring data acquisition options for distributed timing-synchronized FPGA-generated data_FINAL3.pptx

16:00 opi-generator - Generate OPI Screens for Control System Studio

Control System Studio (CS-Studio) is currently in the process of transitioning from Eclipse RCP to the next UI framework called Phoebus. To ease the transition of OPI (Operator Interface) screens developed for Eclipse-based CS-Studio to Phoebus, the "opi-generator" package provides a solution that generates properly formatted XML files for both CS-Studio and Phoebus from the same Python script. "opi-generator" is designed with a mechanism that can handle the differences in XML formats supported by the two platforms, and it also offers customizable support for unified screen style configurations.

Speaker: Tong Zhang (FRIB)

opi-generator_talk.pdf

16:06 From spreadsheet to PVs with a click

RegMap is a tool used at Spallation Neutron Source to assist PLC developers with creating and testing EPICS integration with ease. PLC tags are described as a single line in Excel or CSV spreadsheet with user friendly fields. The RegMap tool converts saved spreadsheet into an EPICS database file and an OPI screen file, and allows for quick development cycle of register based devices without extensive EPICS experience.

Speaker: Klemen Vodopivec (control system & data acquisition software engineer)

EPICS_Meeting_Apr2023_RegMap.pdf

16:12 Fermilab Web-based Controls Application Framework R&D

The Accelerator Controls Operation Research Network (ACORN) project is a DOE O 413.3B project with a projected cost over $135M that aims to modernize Fermilab’s accelerator control system by 2028. A part of this modernization effort is to replace the existing user applications that are used by operators and experts to control and tune the accelerator complex. These applications use a diverse menagerie of outdated technologies including low-level UI frameworks such as Xlib and Java Swing. A goal of ACORN is to leverage modern web-based application frameworks for control system applications. Three candidate web UI frameworks were selected as part of the ACORN R&D – React, Fresh and Flutter. To evaluate the developer experience with these frameworks, 5 developers were given a simple task: use a framework to implement the user interface for a simple control room application: the telephone index. We present our findings and the reasoning behind our selected framework.

Speaker: John Diamond

FermilabWebAppRAndD2.pptx

16:18 Upgrade legacy VME module to Ethernet/FPGA

There are many VME modules in difference system in difference facilities. These VME module become obsolete due to the VME hardware obsolescence (such as front-end computer) and lack of support of operating systems (such as RTEMS) running on the VME systems. In this talk, we will discuss the migration path of the VME board to Ethernet on FPGA for control. The upgraded module can have the same VME formfactor for hardware compatibility reasons.

Speaker: Dr Yuke Tian (Brookhanven National Lab)

VME_update_NSLS2_Y_Tian_#155.pdf

16:24 Autoparam module status update

Last year, Cosylab made a public release of Autoparam and ADS EPICS modules and we are happy to see that the community is adopting them: soon after the release, we started to receive pull requests for bugfixes and new features. Fermilab was the first user of Autoparam and has an earlier version of the module. With this report, I'd like to present what was improved since Fermilab adopted Autoparam, and what benefits upgrading would bring.

Speaker: Jernej Varlec (Cosylab)

jevarlec_collab_EPICS_23.pdf

16:30 Data pool management across multiple front end architectures.

This talk will cover how Fermilab is currently handling the incorporation of EPICS IOCs into a traditionally all ACNET control system. Specifically, it will discuss the role of Fermilab's Data Pool Manager (DPM) which provides a common data acquisition interface across multiple hardware architectures and protocols thus simplifying the development of data analysis and display components.

Speaker: Charles King

DPM Lightning Talk - EPICS Colaboration 2023.pdf

16:36 EPICS Tools and Services Status

An update on the recent developments from the EPICS Tools and Services collaborations. This includes the latest releases of Phoebus and improvements to middle layer services like Olog, Save Restore, ChannelFinder, etc.

Speaker: Kunal Shroff (Brookhaven National Lab)

EPICS tools and services.pdf

EPICS tools and services.pptx

16:42 Challenges and Perspectives of AreaDetector for Sirius High-throughput Detectors

The PiMega detector family deployed at Sirius uses CERN’s Medipix3RX ASIC, delivering nearly 210 Gbps worth of raw payload in the largest detectors. In new generations based on Timepix4, the worst case bandwidth considered can reach up to 1.8 Tbps.

Current software architecture has a strong decoupling between data acquisition software stack and the EPICS IOC, relegating to EPICS the role of slow viewer only at 10 Hz update rate. A great deal of AreaDetector functions such as buffering, file writing, ROIs, image viewers, flat field array processing, are reimplemented elsewhere.

We discuss possibilities of higher integration to AreaDetector framework in newer software designs and present the challenges considered in this effort, future perspectives for new high-throughput detectors and questions that arise about possible hardware acceleration implementations in the framework, focusing on making the best use out of the existing and open source frameworks such as the AreaDetector.

Speaker: Marco Montevechi Filho (CNPEM)

EPICS collab meeting (3).pdf

16:48 Mobile web client for PSI Elog

CSNS (China Spallation Neutron Source) has used PSI Elog as the logbook system for several years and has stored more than ten thousand logs. However, the Elog does not provide responsive or separate web pages for mobile web client. Therefore, a separate mobile web client has been developed and deployed at CSNS to provide functions of user login, reading logs, creating logs, editing logs and deleting logs for the Elog. This talk will cover the design and implementation of the mobile web client for PSI Elog deployed at CSNS.

Speaker: Lin Wang (CSNS)

Mobile web client for PSI Elog.pdf

Mobile web client for PSI Elog.ppt

16:54 node-epics-ca: An EPICS Channel Access client for Node.js

node-epics-ca is an EPICS Channel Access client for Node.js, which is intended to be used in the Node.js web applications or web services that want to directly talk to EPICS IOCs instead of an HTTP PV server. It is an FFI (Foreign Function Interface) implementation that talks to the existing EPICS Channel Access shared libraries using a third-party Node.js FFI package called koffi. This talk will cover the implementation and usage of node-epics-ca.

Speaker: Lin Wang (CSNS)

node-epics-ca - An EPICS Channel Access client for Node.js.ppt

node-epics-ca - An EPICS Channel Access client for Node.pdf

Thursday, 27 April

09:00 → 10:30 Plenary Session: Presentations

09:00 TLS for PVA?

Presenting a thread model and possibilities for applying Transport Layer Security (TLS) to the PVA protocol.

Speaker: Michael Davidsaver (Osprey DCS)

202304-pvs-tls.odp

202304-pvs-tls.pdf

09:30 ACCELERATOR SYSTEMS CYBER SECURITY ACTIVITIES AT SLAC

This talk describes four cyber security related activities of
SLAC. First, a broad review of accelerator computing cyber and mission
reliability; our analysis method, findings and outcomes. Second, lab
and accelerator penetration testing, in particular, methods to control
coordinate, and trap, potentially hazardous scans. Third, a summary gap
analysis of recent regulatory orders from common practice at
accelerators, and nominal plan. Finally, briefly, first steps in
adding authentication and encryption to EPICS itself, as described in
other talks.

Speaker: Gregory White (SLAC)

EPICS23_Cybertalk-230427 v3.pdf

EPICS23_Cybertalk-230427 v3.pptx

09:50 Improving security in RTEMS and EPICS IOC applications

Cybersecurity is a rising concern in real-time and industrial control systems due to increased security threats toward these systems. In this talk, we discuss our ongoing efforts in security testing through modularization and fuzzing of the software stacks to detect vulnerabilities in different components. We have previously worked on modularizing the network stack of RTEMS into linkable static libraries. Our current efforts revolve around fuzzing using techniques such as model inference and machine learning to learn the state machine model of ICS protocol implementations to fuzz deeper states for stateful ICS protocol implementations (channel access, EPICS pvxs, etc.). We also discuss some ideas for our future work on improving the security posture of RTEMS-EPICS integration.

Speakers: Vijay Banerjee (University of Colorado Colorado Springs), Uchenna Ezeobi (University of Colorado Colorado Springs)

Improving_security_in_RTEMS_and_EPICS_IOC_applications.pptx

Improving_security_in_RTEMS_and_EPICS_IOC_applications.pptx.pdf

10:10 Considerations Involving the High Level Applications Services for the EIC Project

High Level Application service options for the Electron Ion Collider Project are currently under evaluation, both from the existing Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider proprietary Controls System and from the EPICS ecosystem. We will describe some early observations, concerns, and opportunities from amongst the more urgently required areas, including Logging, Name Lookups, Alarm notifications, and Sequencing tools.

Speaker: James Jamilkowski (BNL/EIC)

HLA_Considerations_for_EIC_Project-20230427.pdf

10:30 → 11:00 Coffee Break

11:00 → 12:00 Plenary Session: Presentations

11:00 LANSCE migration to an all-EPICS control system as enabled by Data Access EPICS, Industrial I/O, and lvPortDriver

After 50 years of operation, the LANSCE Control System is now an entirely EPICS control system. The original RICE (Remote Instrumentation and Control Equipment) system was replaced mainly by two types of EPICS IOCs National Instrument’s (NI) cRIO and a 2-form factor (VPX/cPCI crate) supporting three capabilities. Slow controls/monitoring use our Industrial I/O software, with EPICS device support talking to the FPGA via NI's C application programming interface. Interceptive beam diagnostics use our lvPortDriver to interface between LabVIEW real-time software and the EPICS IOC. VPX/cPCI systems use an EPICS IOC running on a soft-core processor implemented in the FPGA fabric. The soft-core IOCs have a special version of the channel access server (Data Access) that allows filtering of subscription updates. I will describe each architecture (including some recent improvements) and compare hardware and software lifecycle challenges for the various systems.

Speaker: Scott Baily (LANL)

EPICSSpring2023.pdf

11:20 EPICS IOC Implementation on SoC FPGA based LLRF controllers

A brief overview of EPICS IOC implementation on SoC FPGA based new LLRF controllers. This presentation will include details of work completed so far, advantages, challenges and future work.

Speaker: Shriraj Kunjir (MSU FRIB)

EPICS_Collaboration_Meeting_April2023_Kunjir.pdf

EPICS_Collaboration_Meeting_April2023_Kunjir.pptx

11:40 EPICS for small labs

Wir stellen ein System vor welches es möglich macht EPICS auch in kleinen Laboren (Chemie, Physik) zu etablieren.

Speaker: Heinz Junkes (Fritz Haber Institute)

Fermilab_23.pdf

12:00 → 13:00 Lunch: (on your own)

13:00 → 14:40 Plenary Session: Presentations

13:00 The Use of a Component Database for the APS Upgrade Project

The Component Database (CDB) (developed for the Advanced Photon Source Upgrade) and a tightly coupled version of the eTraveler (originally developed at FRIB) have been in use for over 5 years to support the design, fabrication, and installation of thousands of components. This talk will provide a brief introduction to the applications and then describe the numerous ways the captured data has been used … many of which are beyond what was originally envisioned. A summary will include important “lessons learned” for future users of the tools.

Speaker: Ned Arnold (Argonne National Laboratory)

April2023_EPICS_Collaboration_Mtg_V2_Arnold.pdf

13:20 NSLS-II HEX Beamline Motion Control with Power PMAC Controller

HEX (High Energy Engineering X-ray Scattering) beamline is the first beamline at NSLS-II to use Power PMAC controller as main motion controller. In this presentation, technical details from controller selection, configuration, feedback devices, coordinated motion, EPICS integration, GUI etc. will be discussed. Implementation examples on different beamline components like slits, mono, endstation etc. will be shared as well.

Speaker: Jun Ma (BNL)

2023 Epics Meeting - NSLS-II HEX Beamline Motion Control with Power PMAC Controller.pptx

13:40 PhantasyCalc - Integrating EPICS Data into a Spreadsheet Application

The effective management of distributed data in the EPICS control network is crucial for efficient data analysis and controls software application development. One approach that has gained popularity among a large group of individuals is utilizing spreadsheet applications like LibreOffice Calc for data processing. The development of "PhantasyCalc" offers a systematic solution for integrating information from the EPICS network into LibreOffice Calc, providing simple yet powerful ways to work with diverse data sources. As a result, the spreadsheet becomes a user-friendly and shareable data analysis solution.

Speaker: Tong Zhang (FRIB)

phantasy-calc_talk.pdf

14:00 AI Based Stabilization of Sample Environments

Image recognition and other tasks with visual components typically performed by humans remain integral to the establishment and maintenance of sample environments, including sample alignment, in neutron scattering and similar experiments. During this presentation, I will discuss the development of a user-friendly, EPICS-based interface designed for use by beamline operators which provides high-level access to system controls with the additional capability of deploying machine-learned models that reduce and simplify the workload of humans in executing controls tasks.

Speaker: Morgan Henderson (RadiaSoft LLC)

Henderson_AI-Sample-Environment.pdf

RadiaSoft-ORNL_TOPAZ-alignment.gif

14:20 EPICS-TCA, a Node.js Library for EPICS Channel Access and PV Access Protocols

We developed a native CA and PVA library in JavaScript’s local runtime environment, Node.js. By using the asynchronous features of this programming language, this library can efficiently process a large amount of CA connections.

Speaker: Hao Hao (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

epics-tca.pdf

14:40 → 15:10 Coffee Break

15:10 → 16:10 Closeout Session (Workshop Reports)

15:10 CS Studio / Phoebus Workshop Summary

Speaker: Pierrick Hanlet (Fermilab)

PhoebusWorkshopSummary.pdf

15:15 Motor Control Workshop Summary

Speaker: Kevin Peterson (ANL)

Motor_Workshop_Summary.pptx

15:20 areaDetector Workshop Summary

Speaker: Mark Rivers (Univ. of Chicago)

Workshop Summary.pdf

15:25 EPICS Core Workshop Summary

Speaker: Michael Davidsaver (Osprey DCS)

15:30 RTEMS Workshop Announcement

Speaker: Heinz Junkes (Fritz Haber Institute)

15:31 Cybersecurity Workshop Announcement

Speakers: Anthony Tiradani (Fermilab), Gregory White (SLAC)

15:32 User Interface Workshop Announcement

Speaker: Beau Harrison (Fermilab AD Controls ACORN)

15:33 Collaboration Meeting Closeout

Closing remarks for the meeting. Announcement of next collaboration meeting.

Speaker: Karen White (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

EPICS-CloseoutSlidesApr2023.pptx

15:38 Local Organizing Committee Wrapup

Speaker: Erik Gottschalk (Fermilab)

Credit Slide-Team Appreciation-EPICS 2023x.pptx

Friday, 28 April

09:00 → 10:00 Workshop: RTEMS

Convener: Heinz Junkes (Fritz Haber Institute)

09:00 → 10:00 Workshop: User Interface

Convener: Beau Harrison (Fermilab AD Controls ACORN)

10:00 → 10:15 Coffee Break WH-2X

10:15 → 12:00 Workshop: Cybersecurity

Conveners: Anthony Tiradani (Fermilab), Gregory White (SLAC)

tls presentation.pdf

12:00 → 13:00 Lunch: (on your own)