A generic method for real time detection of magnetic sensor failure on tokamaks

In tokamaks, magnetic field probe sensors are used to measure the plasma position. If a sensor provides a wrong data, the error may propagate through the control loop and cause undesirable contact between the vessel wall and the plasma. In the case of a tokamak with water cooled walls, these types of event may be very serious. Despite of these unlikely faults, the potential damages call for a real time check of magnetic sensor data before using them for control. In this paper a simple and generic method based on the comparison of each sensor to a weighted sum of its neighbors is proposed. From the analysis of the residue (the result of the comparison), the fault can be detected and compensated. The method is tuned and tested against Tore Supra experimental data. Then, the method is adapted to ITER and assessed on a reference ITER scenario using simulated magnetic sensor data.