The Central Control Room Man-Machine Interface at the Clinton P
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© 1973 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE. THE CENTRAL CONTROL ROOM MAN-MACHINE INTERFACE AT THE CLINTON P. ANDERSON MESON PHYSICS FACILITY (LAMPF)* B. L. Hartway, J. Bergstein, C. M. Plopper University of California Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Los Alamos, New Mexico Summary tial that the data be organized and displayed for the operator in a format which quickly conveyed the status The control system for the Clinton P. Anderson of the whole accelerator or any subsystems under study. Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF) is organized around an Similarly, there had to be a simple but flexible scheme on-line digital computer. Accelerator operations are for the operator to manipulate the various controls. conducted from the Central Control Room (CCR) where two The experience gained from the prototype console identical but independent operator consoles provide the was incorporated in the design for the LAMPF operator's This paper traces the evolution man-machine interface. console. A mockup of the console was built and evalu- of the man-machine interface from the initial concepts ated from many points of view. Several human-factor Special emphasis is given of a computer control system. studies were performed to determine the optimum shape of to the human factors which influenced the development. the console and the location for various controls. The The way in which an operator interacts with the system goal was to develop a console that could be operated by is illustrated by a description of an accelerator oper- one person but which could accommodate two persons com- ating sequence. fortably. Also, due to the anticipated size and com- plexity of the LAMPF control system, it was decided to Introduction eventually incorporate multiple identical operators' The LAMPF is being built to provide a unique tool consoles for reasons of (1) enhanced reliability, (2) for research in medium-energy nuclear physics and for operator training, (3) simultaneous access to the accel- associated practical applications. The heart of the erator by more than one operator, and (4) extended capa- facility is a half-mile long linear accelerator capable bilities for operating the experimental areas. of producing 1 mA (average) of 800-MeV protons. The control system for the IAMPF is organized First LAMPF Operator Console around an on-line digital computer.' This control sys- The LAMPF operator's console went through one more tem was designed to provide the operations staff with stage of evolution. The first of three custom cabinets adequate tools for understanding the behavior of the ordered for CCR was fitted with the latest versions of accelerator, for optimizing its performance, and for devices thought to be essential to the console. These maintaining it in productive operation. In the system devices included the graphics display scope, the alpha- design all data and controls essential to the operation numeric keyboard and scope, six raise/lower knobs on two of the accelerator were multiplexed through the computer panels, 60 function buttons on two panels, a trackball, to CCR where the operator could interact with the sys- a storage display scope, an oscilloscope, a communica- tem based on his interpretation of the data displayed tions station, and a closed-circuit TV (CCTV) monitor.3 on various computer-driven devices. Because all facets The console was successfully used in the 211-MeV beam of this operation were determined by computer programs test at LAMPF. During most periods of operation, the written in FORTRAN, the flexibility inherent in the console was occupied by an operator who used the con- system was virtually unlimited. trols in cooperation with the accelerator physicist con- ducting the investigation. Prototype Console The success of the console was due, in no small In the first attempt to provide the control system part, to the software which supported its operation. interface for the above requirements, an operator's The systems programs to drive each device were written console was built and installed as an integral part of by professional programmers in assembly language. Then the computer control system for the LAMPF Electron a FORTRAN interface in the form of a subroutine calling Prototype Accelerator. This prototype console and sup- sequence was created for each device, allowing the devel- porting software verified that it was feasible to oper- opment of an extensive library of subroutines and con- ate an accelerator through a computer. One of the key trol software. This made the systems programming trans- features of the console was a graphical display scope parent to the console user and allowed physicists to with an interactive light pen for control.' This sin- develop most of the accelerator operating programs. gle scope replaced the myriad of hardware control pan- As the tempo of accelerator operations increased, els so common in accelerator control rooms. An alpha- it was clear that the second console was needed. This numeric display scope and keyboard provided the opera- had been anticipated by the order for three console tor with a second means for registering his judgment by cabinets. However, the instrumentation of the second altering a sequence of operations or by redefining set console was being postponed as long as possible to take points, parameters, or constraints. Some of the other fullest advantage of the experience being accumulated. hardware developed for the console included function buttons, thumbwheel-switch channel selectors, and a com- Final WMPF Operator Console puter-controlled pulse viewing system. In the subsequent design review it became evident The most difficult design problem was the man-ma- chine interface at the operator's console. There are that the main weakness of the first console was its in- ability to adapt hardware panels to different operators over 2500 analog signals and 2500 status indications available to the computer which can gather data at a performing different tasks. The efficiency of an oper- ator depended on his having a display scope coordinated rate in excess of 24,000 words/second (a word being one with an appropriate set of controls and indicators for analog measurement or 12 status indications). A total of 1500 knobs and 2000 relay closures can be controlled each specific task, and on his being able to switch rap- idly from one task to the next. Moreover, it was impor- through the computer. Since the primary mode of opera- tant to have a way to indicate continuously the status tion is based on open-loop, set-point control with the operator acting in a supervisory capacity, it was essen- of certain critical systems. * Work performed under auspices of USAEC. 633 These problems were resolved by the development of or developmental work, (4) a system analyst, engineer, a small control module called the card programmable or maintenance technician doing surveys, calibration function button panel.4 It consisted of a panel of 30 procedures, or systems development. The flexibility of function buttons with indicators which could be as- the consoles' control hardware allows all these various signed in over 1000 ways by the insertion of any one of operations with equal facility since the operator ac- 1000 program cards which the computer could recognize. tually predefines the console control hardware to a con- Each program card provided its own labeling for the figuration appropriate to his task through the use of function buttons and indicators. The ability for vari- the card panels. Moreover, by virtue of the immense ably-assigned function buttons and indicators did much manpower investment in the programming of the LAMPF com- to enhance the flexibility of the console. puter, the operator has access through the computer to An important adjunct to the card panel was the the equivalent of 20 man years of experience. approxi- analog slew module. It consisted of three raise/lower mately 10 in systems programming and 10 in control appl* knobs with adjacent alphanumeric readouts. Special cations programming. The only outward evidence of the buttons were installed beside each knob to provide the programming ivestment is the relative ease with which computer with instructions for different knob sensiti- the operators perform their various tasks at the consola. vities and resolution. The readouts could be addressed A typical operational routine at the console would by the computer to provide the operator with suitable result in the following sequence. The operator insero;a knob identifications or messages whose maximum length program card in a card panel which provides him with was 32 characters. The slew module was built in a mod- the desired set of routines for program callup and con- ular construction, as was the card panel described trol and status indication for critical systems. He above, for ease of maintenance and for ability to be then uses the graphic and/or alphanumeric scope(s) for relocated easily in the event of console rearrangement. program display and interaction. He will interact with With the deficiencies of the first LAMFF console the graphics scope by using L-he light pen and interact thus corrected by the card panel and slew module, con- with the alphanumeric scope by using the keyboard. He struction of the second console was begun. Three of uses the keyboard to specify program options, modify the card panels and two of the slew modules were incor- displayed instructions, and specify the resultant for- porated into its construction. Other instrumentation mat of graphical diagnostic data to be plotted on stor- improvements incorporated at this time included the age scopes.