A scalable and reconfigurable industrial-grade Slow Control System for SABRE-South Dark matter experiment. (2nd March 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Krishnan, S.; Collins, S.; Smoors, D.; Webster, C.; Baroncelli, T.; Brooks, G.; Mould, J.; Dix, W.J.; McNamara, P.; Scutti, F.; Lane, G.; Urquijo, P.; Duffy, A.R.
• Is Part Of: Journal of instrumentation. Volume 16:Number 3(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-03-02
• Subjects: Detector control systems (detector and experiment monitoring and slow-control systems, architecture, hardware, algorithms, databases) -- Modular electronics; Scientific apparatus and instruments -- Periodicals; 502.84
• DOI: 10.1088/1748-0221/16/03/P03002
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1748-0221

Abstract

Abstract: The Sodium iodide Active Background Rejection Experiment-South (SABRE-South) is a direct dark matter detector soon to be deployed in the Stawell gold mine, in Victoria, Australia. Monitoring of external environmental and experimental conditions, (temperature, barometric pressure, relative humidity, high voltage, and seismic vibration) is vital to ensure the data quality of the SABRE search for dark matter via direct detection. These parameters are generally non-time-critical in the range of Hz to a few kHz and constitute a slow control system. We present the design of a novel compact, industrial-grade, and self-contained slow control system for SABRE-South. This system, featuring innovative hardware and software architecture based on National instruments compact RIO (NI-cRIO) and LabVIEW can be scaled up at low-cost and is capable of implementing the functionalities available in high-end SCADA systems while maintaining the flexibility to integrate custom software code (i.e. C++, PYTHON) for bespoke interfacing needs.