Vacuum control system for the AIGO gravitational wave detector

In this article a vacuum control system for the Australian International Gravitational Observatory (AIGO) research facility is described. The very large UHV vacuum system requires ultra-low hydrocarbon partial pressures and must be protected in order to prevent contaminations due to accidents. The system utilizes an Ethernet based remote automated system and supports dynamic monitoring of the entire vacuum system from any work station on the Local Area Network. The control system uses simple hardware and can be easily expanded for the proposed 4 km AIGO detector.