Speaker
Dr
Bohumil Franek
(Rutherford Appleton Laboratory)
Description
In the SMI++ framework, the real world is viewed as a collection of objects
behaving as finite state machines. These objects can represent real entities,
such as hardware devices or software tasks, or they can represent abstract
subsystems. A special language (SML) is provided for the object description.
The SML description is then interpreted by a Logic Engine (coded in C++)
to drive the Control System. This allows rule based automation and error
recovery. SMI++ objects can run distributed over a variety of platforms, all
communication being handled transparently by an underlying communication
system - DIM. This framework has been first used by the DELPHI experiment at
CERN since 1990 and subsequently by BaBar experiment at SLAC since 1999 for
the design and implementation of their experiment control. SMI++ has been
adopted at CERN by all LHC experiments in their detector control systems as
recommended by the Joint Controls Project. Since then it has undergone many
upgrades to cater for varying user needs. The main features of the framework and
in particular of SML language as well as recent and near future upgrades will
be discussed. SMI++ has, so far, been used only by large particle physics
experiments. It is, however, equally suitable for any other control applications.
Primary author
Dr
Bohumil Franek
(Rutherford Appleton Laboratory)
Co-author
Dr
Clara Gaspar
(CERN)
