Instrument Control Software at the IBR-2 Reactor: Features and Prospects

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nstrument Control Software at the IBR-2 Reactor: Features and Prospects A. S. Kirilova, *, I. A. Morkovnikova, **, S. M. Murashkevicha, T. B. Petukhovaa, and L. A. Truntovaa aFrank

Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Moscow oblast, 141980 Russia *e-mail: [email protected] **e-mail: [email protected] Received June 18, 2019; revised July 29, 2019; accepted August 10, 2019

Abstract—The Sonix package is the main instrument control software at the IBR-2 reactor. It was originated in the beginning of 1990s for the Neutron Spectrometer with High Resolution (beam 6A of IBR-2). Later the complex was transferred to other instruments, including those located outside Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics. A little bit less than 20 installations are in operation now. When developing the complex, we were guided both by world trends, as well as by the specifics of our laboratory. Many important requirements were formulated by our users, therefore, they can be considered as real co-authors of the project. Besides an instrument control itself, the complex also includes remote measurement supervising subsystem (WebSonix service) and the central repository for measurement results. Keywords: neutron instruments, control software DOI: 10.1134/S1027451020070228

INTRODUCTION The Sonix package [1] is the main instrument control software at the IBR-2 reactor. It was developed in the beginning of the 1990s for the NSHR texture diffractometer (beamline 6A of IBR-2). Later, the complex was transferred to other instruments, including those located outside Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics. A little bit less than 20 package installations are in operation now. When developing the complex, we were guided both by the world trends [2–7], as well as by the specificity of our laboratory. Many important requirements were formulated by our users, therefore, they can be considered as real co-authors of the project. The modular organization of the software and use of the Python language for describing the experimental script make it relatively easy to adapt it to the specific features of various instruments. The universal GUI based on the set of PyQt widgets [8] can be used to control the experiment without further refinement. It provides all the necessary functions including preparation of a task for the experiment, its launch, monitoring of current values of parameters, and spectrum visualization. In addition, there are some instrument tuning programs [9] and other useful tools. Besides the instrument control itself, the complex also includes remote measurement supervising subsystem (WebSonix service [10]) and the central repository [11] for measurement results. The Journal system [12, 13] provides automatic data logging of measurements. The

Microsoft Windows is used as the operating system on control computers. SONIX+ STRUCTURE The Sonix+ is a unified, universal set of modules (Fig. 1). Sonix+ is mostly local system. The computing power of modern computers is usually sufficient to do the whole job. For applications