Control-oriented Automatic System for Transport Analysis (ASTRA)-Matlab integration for Tokamaks

The exponential growth in energy consumption has led to a renewed interest in the development of alternatives to fossil fuels. Between the unconventional resources that may help to meet this energy demand, nuclear fusion has arisen as a promising source, which has given way to an unprecedented interest in solving the different control problems existing in nuclear fusion reactors such as Tokamaks. The aim of this manuscript is to show how one of the most popular codes used to simulate the performance of Tokamaks, the Automatic System For Transport Analysis (ASTRA) code, can be integrated into the Matlab-Simulink tool in order to make easier and more comfortable the development of suitable controllers for Tokamaks. As a demonstrative case study to show the feasibility and the goodness of the proposed ASTRA-Matlab integration, a modified anti-windup Proportional Integral Derivative (PID)-based controller for the loop voltage of a Tokamak has been implemented. The integration achieved represents an original and innovative work in the Tokamak control area and it provides new possibilities for the development and application of advanced control schemes to the standardized and widely extended ASTRA transport code for Tokamaks.

► The paper presents a useful tool for rapid prototyping of different solutions to deal with the control problems arising in Tokamaks.
► The proposed tool embeds the standardized Automatic System For Transport Analysis (ASTRA) code for Tokamaks within the well-known Matlab-Simulink software.
► This allows testing and combining diverse control schemes in a unified way considering the ASTRA as the plant of the system.
► A demonstrative Proportional Integral Derivative (PID)-based case study is provided to show the feasibility and capabilities of the proposed integration.