Hardware-in-the-loop simulation as a stage of plasma control system model-based design in tokamaks: A test case

The paper is devoted to a hardware-in-the-loop simulation stage in the whole cycle of tokamak plasma control system design starting from practical needs and challenges and ending up in applications of developed control systems deployed in real world plants to achieve desirable objectives. Control problems of tokamak plasmas are described. The hardware-in-the-loop test case simulation is implemented into the Test Bed which consists of target PCs for modeling MIMO plant and controller on real-time operating system xPC Target from MathWorks and a workstation (Host PC) with MATLAB/Simulink development environment. This environment allows to automatically generate and compile plant and controller codes with Real-Time Workshop and to upload compiled programs to the target PCs. The raw Ethernet is used to connect the target PCs to each other. Two plasma shape and current MIMO H_∞ control systems were designed and simulated on the Test Bed specifically for tokamaks T-15MD and ITER on linear plasma models obtained from nonlinear plasma physics DINA code on plasma current flat-top phase. The real time hardware-in-the-loop simulation results are presented for both tokamaks when minor disruptions occur.