Design and operation of the RFX-mod plasma shape control system

•Linearized plasma response model of RFX-mod Tokamak Double/Single Null discharges.•Model based design of a vertical stability control system.•Model based design of a plasma shape LQG control system with Kalman state estimator.•Real time plasma boundary reconstruction algorithm.•Tracking and disturbance rejection experimental tests.

The aim of executing Single Null discharges in RFX-mod operating as a Tokamak led to the design and implementation of a plasma shape feedback control system. A fully model-based approach was followed which allowed dealing with critical issues such as the presence of a conducting shell, the strong coupling of the poloidal field coils and the voltage limits of the power supplies. A Linear Quadratic regulator and a Kalman state estimator were designed and implemented in the real time MARTe framework together with an algorithm for the real-time plasma boundary reconstruction. The problem of a number of sensors along the poloidal direction adequate only for circular discharges was also successfully tackled. The development of the system and its performances in terms of tracking and disturbance rejection capability are presented in the paper.