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Abstract: Injection efficiency into the Diamond Light Source Storage Ring (SR) is currently optimised by operators performing a grid scan over the final pair of corrector magnets inside the Booster-to-Storage Ring (BTS) transfer line. The phase advance between the pair is sufficient to provide good control over the position and angle of the beam as it enters the SR. However, the method is slow and the strengths of the corrector pair can approach power supply limits over time as machine conditions drift. We propose a Bayesian optimisation algorithm to optimise leading right-singular vector coefficients obtained from a Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) of the BTS response matrix over all corrector magnets, improving sample efficiency. We further transform the proposed coefficients through a non-linear map to restrict the set of solutions to a desirable range as determined by the user. We compare our results to the grid scan technique and suggest further refinements to the algorithm.

Open Access

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Abstract: Modern particle accelerator facilities require sophisticated control systems capable of managing thousands of process variables in real-time while ensuring high availability, scalability, and ease of maintenance. This paper presents EPIK8S (EPICS on Kubernetes), a framework that leverages Kubernetes container orchestration to deploy, manage, and scale EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System) infrastructure for accelerator control systems. A central design principle is that the entire control system configuration for a beamline — comprising IOCs, services, and infrastructure — is captured in a single YAML file, which is processed through a Jinja2 templating layer to produce device-specific IBEK runtime configurations. This three-tier architecture radically simplifies IOC management, enables complete change tracking via Git, and eliminates an entire class of manual configuration errors. The framework introduces a GitOps-based approach using ArgoCD for continuous deployment, providing declarative configuration management and automated synchronisation. We describe the architecture and implementation, and report operational experience from three INFN facilities: the SPARC_LAB photoinjector, the DAFNE Beam Test Facility (BTF), and the ELI-NP gamma beam system in Romania. Performance metrics — including dedicated Channel Access round-trip latency measurements comparing bare-metal, pod-to-pod, and external-to-cluster scenarios — and lessons learned from over two years of production operation demonstrate significant improvements in deployment efficiency, maintainability, and reliability compared to traditional bare-metal EPICS deployments, with containerisation overhead well within acceptable bounds for accelerator control applications.

Open Access

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Abstract: Full utility of Diamond II’s increased brilliance and coherence will require next generation scanning, capable of operating at high speed in the nano-scale regime. At this level, motion systems can become highly non-linear and under actuated creating challenges beyond the capabilities of traditional control methodologies. The new architecture, and more specifically, the high performance FPGA based controller will push the limits of motion control systems and create a platform for deploying advanced control models. This will begin with system identification and the extraction of data driven models. Control laws will be determined using advanced controls techniques and ML solutions such as agent based reinforcement learning. The presentation will include a description of the hardware as well as a brief overview of the advanced controls strategies used and the reasons for using them.

Open Access

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Abstract: Diamond Light Source produces synchrotron radiation by accelerating electrons to relativistic speeds. In order to maximise the intensity of the radiation, vibrations of the electron beam are attenuated by a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) control system actuating hundreds of magnets at rates exceeding 10 kHz. For future accelerator configurations, in which two separate arrays of magnets with different bandwidths and constraints are used in combination, standard accelerator control design methods are not suitable. To address this, we develop a transformation based on the generalised singular value decomposition (GSVD) to decouple the two-array cross-directional (CD) dynamics into sets of two-input single-output (TISO) and single-input single-output (SISO) systems. This transformation allows the controller to be designed in modal space using SISO and TISO methods and to be tuned to each actuator array separately. The non-orthogonality of the GSVD and potentially ill-conditioned response matrices are compensated for by incorporating static compensator matrices. This approach results in a simple controller structure that can be implemented to meet the 100 kHz sampling frequency of the Diamond’s future configuration with 252 outputs and 396 inputs. The GSVD-based design is implemented and validated through real-world experiments at Diamond. Our approach provides a natural extension of the modal decomposition for single-array systems and has potential application in other CD systems, including paper making, steel rolling, or battery manufacturing processes.

Open Access

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Abstract: Diamond light source has been operating since 2007, and currently has 26 motion-controlled insertion devices that produce synchrotron light for the majority of the 36 beamlines in operation. The Diamond-II upgrade will reduce the emittance, increase the energy of the electron beam, increase the number of straights available, and includes the delivery of three flagship beamlines. As a part of delivering Diamond-II we plan to build and procure 12 new insertion devices of which 10 will be motion-controlled using in-house designed and built control systems. We also plan to upgrade three control systems to manage obsolescence and enable software upgrades. This paper describes the various generations of motion control systems present, and outlines the upgrade plans, controls challenges, and special requirements.