First experience with control and operational models for vacuum equipment in the AD decelerator

Control and Operational models for Vacuum Equipment have been studied at CERN for several years. A prototype implementation was tried out on ion gauges in LEP followed by a full-scale implementation for all vacuum equipment to be controlled in the newly built AD ring. In order to meet the tight time schedule, the existing hardware and software infrastructure of the PS complex has been used. The model server was built on top of this infrastructure. This has introduced some restrictions with respect to a full implementation of the models, but made the server available for all vacuum equipment already installed in the various accelerators which are connected to this control system. In order to test the server, a simplified man-machine interface has been created. This interface presents the available acquisition and control values in a very homogeneous way to the operator, making the advantage of the chosen model approach evident. It also makes additional diagnostic information, previously unavailable, accessible to the vacuum operators.