About JCOP

The Joint COntrols Project (JCOP) is a collaboration between the LHC experiments, the EP Department and BE-ICS, the Industrial Controls Systems Group in the Beams Department. It was started in order to encourage the use of controls solutions developed in common by the LHC experiments and its partners in the EP and the BE Departments. The document setting out the project proposal can be found here. Given the increasing constraints on manpower, as well as the evident similarity in technical requirements for controls amongst the experiments, the project enables more efficient use of resources to be made. The background, objectives, and other details of the project can be found in the Initial Project Plan and a report on the first phase of the project is available at the report in the document Initial Phase. A major External Review of the Joint COntrols Project project was held at CERN in March 2003. In 2009, and following the reorganization of the controls support group at CERN, an internal review of the project took place which led to a clarification of reporting lines and a revised mandate.

Day-to-day decisions are taken taken by the JCOP Coordination Board which is chaired by the JCOP Project Leader. The Coordination Board meets bi-weekly and includes the experiments' Controls Co-ordinators and representatives from BE-ICS and EP-DT. The JCOP Project Leader reports to the JCOP Steering Committee, which also include representatives from the BE and EP management. The Steering Committee meets quarterly and must approve the programme of work, as well as identify and make available the necessary resources.

Today, JCOP provides, supports and maintains a common Framework of tools and a set of components. These allow the configuration, the monitoring and the operation of the different sub-detectors and also include communication mechanisms with the Data Acquisition/Trigger systems, as well as with external systems such as the CERN infrastructure services and the LHC.

A number of studies and sub-projects have been completed in the framework of JCOP since its origins. Presently the work in JCOP is divided into four major sub-projects:

Sub-project Description
DSS Detector Safety System
Framework Tools and Guidelines for implementation
GAS Control In collaboration with Gas Working Group
Rack Control In collaboration with EN/EL

During these years, JCOP has organized four major workshops:

Workshop Date and location
JCOP Workshop-4 Chateau de Bossey, CH, on 4-5 November 2005
JCOP Workshop-3 CERN on 5-6 June 2002
JCOP Workshop-2 CERN on 6-7-8 September 1999
JCOP Workshop-1 CERN on 3-4-5 June 1998

"The information contained or referred to in these pages is destined exclusively for use in the framework of the LHC Experiments Joint Controls Project and may not be used for any other purpose. Opinions are those of the author(s) only and neither CERN nor the author(s) accept any liability for errors or omissions."