Implementation of Distributed Information Services for Control Systems Framework for Maintenance Domain in a Physical System

Abstract

In physical systems for having best performance in processes like maintenance,
troubleshooting, design, construction, update and etc., we need to store data that
describe systems state and its components characteristics. Thus we need a framework
for developing an application which can store, integrate and manage data and
also execute permitted operations. DISCS (Distributed Information Services for
Control Systems) as a framework with mentioned capabilities can help us achieve
our goals. In this paper, we first assessed DISCS and its basic architecture and then
we implement this framework for maintenance domain of a system. With implementation
of maintenance module, we’ll be able to store preventive maintenance
data and information which help us to trace the problems and analyze situation
caused failure and destruction.

Full text

CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF DEVELOPING A MOBILE APP FOR
DISTRIBUTED INFORMATION SERVICES FOR CONTROL SYSTEMS
(DISCS)*
A. Khaleghi†,1, M. Akbari, J. Rahighi, Iranian Light Source Facility (ILSF) Institute for Research in
Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran
1also at Imam Khomeini International University (IKIU) Engineering, Qazvin, Iran
K. Mahmoudi, M. Hosseinzadeh, M. Oghbaei, Imam Khomeini International University (IKIU)
Engineering, Qazvin, Iran
Abstract
Due to involvement of different engineering disci-
plines, tools and methodologies in design, construction
and operation of an experimental physics facility (EPF),
an integrated information system is needed to efficiently
manage data. DISCS is a framework developed to address
this need which includes multiple modules and services
that provide web-based management tools and APIs to
access EPF related information stored in various data-
bases like Controls Configuration Database (CCDB) and
Cables Database (CDB). In this paper we propose a con-
ceptual design of a mobile application that can easily be
used by technicians working at EPFs to access their re-
quired data. The proposed application would use QR code
and Augmented Reality (AR) to enhance user experience.
It can also be used as a means to create a collaborative
environment by providing social networking features
helping technicians to share their knowledge from differ-
ent facilities worldwide.
INTRODUCTION
Mobile phones and other portable devices have become
an integral part of our everyday life. People are getting
used to various applications that help them with handling
their personal and professional tasks. Technicians and
other employees at an experimental physics facility may
need to access multiple databases to gain the information
required for their ongoing tasks, a mobile application can
be used as a user-friendly tool to meet their needs.
An integrated information system is needed to manage
the data and computation of an EPF. Distributed Infor-
mation System for Control Systems (DISCS) is a frame-
work for integrating, managing and accessing information
base and other necessary computation [1].
European Spallation Source (ESS) is an under construc-
tion facility that will be the world’s most powerful neu-
tron source for research which is built in collaboration of
17 European countries. ESS has been cooperating in
DISCS, one of the products of this collaboration is the
development of CCDB which will be used to store data
about control system components and some additional
metadata [2].
DISCS is partitioned into smaller subsystems called
modules based on user requirements, functionality, and
cohesion among the data sources. Development of DISCS
is kept decentralized and it consist of two main groups:
the first is the Module Team that is responsible for devel-
opment of a module and for its all deliverables like ser-
vices, API, schema and applications. The second group
named Collaboration Board is a group of stakeholders
responsible for governance and architecture of the system,
each module should be approved by the Collaboration
Board before it is published as a part of DISCS [3].
Each module consists of one or more applications, ser-
vices and databases. Applications and services within a
module can access data directly or through some layers
but user applications must access module’s data only
through its service API, the system is made up of a collec-
tion of collaborating modules as shown in figure 1 [1].
Figure 1: Collaborating modules.
CONCEPTUAL DESIGN
Comparing Different Approaches
There are three different approaches that can be used
for the development of a mobile application for DISCS.
A naïve approach for providing access to the CDB via
mobile application would be the developing of an app that
runs the Cables module web application through an em-
bedded web browser like android WebView [4].
Using this approach we can rapidly create a mobile ap-
plication to access the cable information but in fact this
would be just an alternative way of using the previously
existing module’s web application. The negative point of
this approach is that the database is not accessed directly
and new features cannot be added.
A major problem of this approach is that the application
cannot be used if the web service is down or corrupted.
The other approach to design the application may use
the API services provided by previously existing modules.
___________________________________________
* Work supported by Iranian Light Source Facility (ILSF)
† khaleghiali@ipm.ir
16th Int. Conf. on Accelerator and Large Experimental Control Systems ICALEPCS2017, Barcelona, Spain JACoW Publishing
ISBN: 978-3-95450-193-9 doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2017-TUMPL06
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In this situation the application can send different requests
to the services provided by the other DISCS modules then
process and display data in a compatible manner.
This approach makes the development of the app fast
and secure but its disadvantage is that the developers are
bound to the framework of these APIs and cannot run
custom and complex queries and it is difficult to add new
features in this method.
The third approach which is used in our proposed con-
ceptual design is that we develop the mobile application
as a part of an independent module which later can be
added to DISCS. In this method the developer team
would create a new module including mobile application
and it’s required APIs and database schemas so that they
can easily run custom queries and add new features.
Application Architecture
Presented module consist of developing different mo-
bile applications to support both iOS and Android operat-
ing systems. These applications would use custom defined
APIs to connect the CDB and module’s Social Network
Database (SND) which will store technicians and other
employees profile information and their shared messages
using a NoSQL database engine.
It will use the Role Based Access Control (RBAC) [5]
module to perform authentication and authorization ac-
tions for the application security. Authentication is the
process of verifying the user’s identity to prevent unde-
fined users to access RBAC protected resources. When a
user is authenticated and wants to do an action authoriza-
tion will be granted or denied based on the user’s role and
permissions. Authorization to write to an EPICS IOC’s is
determined by role and/or IP address of the user and the
state of the machine [6]. The module structure is shown in
figure 2.
Figure 2: Module Architecture.
Features
QR Scanner
By labelling each cable with a QR code that contains
the cable identifier or number we are able to use a QR
scanner in the proposed application so that the cable in-
formation can easily be retrieved from CDB. This feature
as shown in figure 3 can query the cables database just
with a tap of the finger. This eliminates the need for typ-
ing several numbers in a web application to find the rele-
vant cable information.
Figure 3: Finding cable information using QR code labels.
This feature will also prevent getting incorrect infor-
mation by mistake, since there is no need for typing the
cable numbers.
Augmented Reality
Using the QR code labels, we can show cables infor-
mation on the screen and the user can do several actions
like finding detailed information by pointing to the real
cable and the application would detect the event and dis-
play the corresponding information in responsive view. As
shown in figure 4, the cable’s detail information is shown
in a table adjusted to screen size of the device.
Figure 4: Finding cable information using QR code labels.
16th Int. Conf. on Accelerator and Large Experimental Control Systems ICALEPCS2017, Barcelona, Spain JACoW Publishing
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E-logging
By connecting the application to an available e-logging
system, technicians can report a fault or malfunction and
describe the situation. They can also record a voice mes-
sage instead of writing the report to save time. These
reports then will be stored at the e-logging database.
Social Networking
This application can create an opportunity for techni-
cians and employees from different experimental physics
facilities to share their information and knowledge.
Each employee who installs this application will have a
professional profile visible to other in house staff and also
available to others from various facilities worldwide this
feature is shown in the figure 5. Users can create groups
based on their professional activities and interests and
they can share photos, voice messages and the data with
sharing permission.
Figure 5: Shows employee’s profiles in social network
Location based Security
Most of the smart phones and mobile devices are
equipped with GPS. This can be used as a complement for
RBAC to provide location based security.
We can track the movements through different facility
areas and also we can restrict some features to work only
in the facility.
CONCLUSION
Here we proposed a conceptual mobile application de-
sign which can be a part of independent module to pro-
vide user-friendly interface for searching DISCS data-
bases like Cables Database. We introduced several new
features that can enhance user experience, collaboration
and security.
With augmented reality feature technicians can find de-
tailed information about any cable just by pointing to it.
They also can record voice messages and store them in e-
logging database. Social networking feature provides an
opportunity to create a collaborative environment for the
technicians in different facilities worldwide to share their
opinions and knowledge and create professional groups
based on their expertise and interests. Since the mobile
devise are equipped with various sensors and devices they
can be used to improve system’s security, location based
security was mentioned as a good example for this topic.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was supported by the ILSF manager,
prof. Rahighi and ILSF control and computer divisions’
staff. We are thankful for all their support and the sharing
of their pearls of wisdom with us during the research.
REFERENCES
[1] L. Dalesio et al., “Distributed Information Services for
Control Systems”, in Proc. ICALEPCS’13, San Francisco,
CA, USA, 2013.
[2] T. Korhonen et al., “Status of the European Spallation
Source Control System”, in Proc. ICALEPCS’15, Mel-
borne, Australia, 2015.
[3] DISCS Collaboration,
http://openepics.sourceforge.net/about-
discs/
[4] WebView Android Developers,
https://developer.android.com/reference/andr
oid/webkit/WebView.html
[5] RBAC Documentation,
https://bitbucket.org/europeanspallationsour
ce/rbac/src/
[6] Security (RBAC),
http://openepics.sourceforge.net/security/
16th Int. Conf. on Accelerator and Large Experimental Control Systems ICALEPCS2017, Barcelona, Spain JACoW Publishing
ISBN: 978-3-95450-193-9 doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2017-TUMPL06
Software Technology Evolution
TUMPL06
317
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the CC BY 3.0 licence (©2017). Any distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s), title of the work, publisher, and DOI.