Speaker
Description
As part of the EUROFUSION consortium, S2Innovation has been actively involved in the development and validation of control system solutions for the IFMIF-DONES project, addressing one of the most critical challenges in large-scale scientific facilities: bridging the gap between open-source research frameworks and industrial-grade safety systems.
The presentation will highlight three completed tasks:
1. Hybrid EPICS + WinCC OA integration – development of a prototype Bridge ensuring bidirectional communication with <30 ms latency and >99.5% reliability, demonstrating that hybrid research–industry architectures can meet Machine Protection System (MPS) requirements.
2. PLC–EPICS IOC communication tests – systematic comparison of communication protocols (OPC UA, s7plc, s7nodave) showing that while OPC UA offers interoperability, only direct S7nodave-based communication on modern PLCs consistently meets safety latency requirements.
3. OPC UA pilot implementation – building a testbed replicating CODAC conditions, proving that IPC hardware with integrated S7-1500 dramatically reduces latency to ~15 ms, while standard S7-1200 PLCs remain unsuitable for critical paths.
Key outcomes: validated guidelines for safe and reliable communication architectures in DONES, reduction of technological risk for future fusion projects (ITER, DEMO), and contribution to international best practices in control system integration.
