A MIMO architecture for integrated control of plasma shape and flux expansion for the EAST tokamak

This paper deals with the magnetic control system of the EAST tokamak, i.e. with the system in charge of controlling the position and the shape of the plasma column into the vacuum vessel, as well as the current that flows into it. A multi-input multi-output architecture is proposed in order to achieve integrated control of both plasma boundary and flux expansion in the scrape-off layer. The proposed architecture is based on an XSC-like control approach [1]. In order to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a set of Matlab/Simulink tools that allow to reproduce in simulation the EAST experiments is used. This simulation environment is validated against the experiments, and is then exploited to design and validate the proposed MIMO controller.