BLISS:

experiments control

of EBS beamlines

presented by Matias Guijarro

Beamline Control Unit, Software Group

ESRF, Grenoble, France

Extremely Brilliant Source (ESRF – EBS) project

150 M€ investment over the period 2015-2022
4th generation light source
100x improved brilliance and coherence of X-ray beams
New state-of-the-art beamline portfolio

Full details in talk: FRAPL07

BLISS

BeamLine Instrumentation Support Software

Why BLISS ?

spec: 26 years driving experiments at ESRF

Direct control of devices
- easier to debug
- restarting = reset
Integrated tool
- configuration
- controllers for all kinds of devices
- plotting
Server mode to connect with external processes (GUI...)
Commercial support

Poor macro language
No extensibility
Single task operation
Exclusive hardware control
Per-session configuration, no sharing
No built-in continuous scan framework
Limited data management
No code ownership, less freedom

spec: 26 years driving experiments at ESRF

Limitations

Workarounds

Maintenance cost

The path to BLISS

Python library + tools
Technical choices
Beacon: services for BLISS
Hardware control
Scanning & data acquisition
Data management
Sequences as genuine Python functions

BLISS Python library and tools

Embed into any Python program

>>> from bliss.common.axis import Axis
>>> from bliss.controllers.motors import IcePAP
>>> iceid2322 = IcePAP.IcePAP("iceid2322",
                              {"host": "iceid2322"},
                              [("mbv4mot", Axis, { "address": 1, 
                                                   "steps_per_unit": 80,
                                                   "velocity": 125,
                                                   "acceleration": 500
                                              }
                              )], [])
>>> iceid2322.initialize()
>>> m = iceid2322.get_axis("mbv4mot")
>>> m.velocity()
125.0
>>> m.acceleration()
500.0
>>> m.position()
252.23750000000001
>>>

BLISS Python library and tools

Command Line Interface based on ptpython

matias@kashyyyk:~ % bliss -s test_session
test_session: Executing setup...
Initializing 'heater`
...
Initializing 's1hg`
Done.

>>> ascan(m1, 0, 10, 30, 0.1, diode, save=False)
Total 30 points, 3.0 seconds

Scan 4 Mon Sep 11 11:58:03 2017 <no file> test_session user = guijarro
ascan m1 0 10 30 0.1

  #  timestamp  m1  diode
  0  1.50512e+09   0  499.112
  1  1.50512e+09  0.345  500.799
...
 28  1.50512e+09  9.655  505.622
 29  1.50512e+09  10  499.883

BLISS Python library and tools

Configuration web application

BLISS Python library and tools

Graphical interface for users: interactive web shell

BLISS technical choices

BLISS key concepts

All I/O based on gevent

cooperative multi-tasking

Direct hardware control

Distributed control ownership & shared state

Persistent settings

cache

Transient data store

Scan acquisition chain, represented as a tree

BLISS modular architecture

online data analysis

data visualisation

data archiving

Beacon:

services for BLISS

Beacon static configuration service

Web interface for configuration editing

Beacon server

.yml

Devices & sequences configuration in YAML format

Sessions to group

objects

Python setup file

User scripts

Can replace TANGO DB

Conversion script provided

Beacon: example configuration

sybil:~/local/beamline_configuration % tree
.
├── beacon.rdb
├── eh
│   ├── diode.yml
│   ├── __init__.yml
│   └── motors
│       ├── bv.yml
│       ├── DtoX.yml
│       ├── __init__.yml
│       ├── md2.yml
│       ├── mirror1.yml
│       ├── slits.yml
│       └── table.yml
├── oh
│   ├── bpm.yml
│   ├── __init__.yml
│   ├── motors
│   │   ├── bv.yml
│   │   ├── __init__.yml
│   │   ├── mono.yml
│   │   ├── slits.yml
│   │   └── transfocators.yml
│   └── wagos.yml
└── sessions
    ├── id232_setup.py
    ├── id232.yml
    └── __init__.yml

- controller:
    class: IcePAP
    host: iceid2322
    axes:
    - name: mbv4mot
      address: 1
      steps_per_unit: 817
      velocity: 0.3
      acceleration: 3

bv.yml:

motor object

Beacon dynamic services

Beacon server,

services built on top of

Transient data store

Persistent settings cache

Message broker

state sharing
distributed lock

BLISS Hardware Control

Direct hardware control

Management of concurrent access

Multiple BLISS processes means concurrent access
- distributed control ownership
- based on a protocol: ask Beacon for permission
State coherence
- hardware state is shared between all peers via channels

Management of concurrent access

acquire lock

Management of concurrent access

ok !

acquire lock

Management of concurrent access

ok !

move

acquire lock

Management of concurrent access

move

psy1 locked to A

state channels update

BLISS

scans

BLISS scans

Acquisition chain
- a tree with master & slave nodes
- master triggers data acquisition
- slave takes data
AcquisitionMaster, AcquisitionDevice
- wrappers around BLISS control objects
Data writer
- HDF5

Continuous scan example

m0 position

m0 speed

detector frame triggering

m0 position

m0 speed

detector frame triggering

Continuous scan example

sybil:~ % bliss
>>> from bliss.scanning.chain import AcquisitionChain
>>> from bliss.scanning.acquisition.motor import SoftwarePositionTriggerMaster
>>> from bliss.scanning.acquisition.lima import LimaAcquisitionDevice
>>> from PyTango.gevent import DeviceProxy

>>> m0 = config.get("m0")

>>> lima_dev = DeviceProxy("id30a3/limaccd/simulation")

>>> chain = AcquisitionChain()

>>> chain.add(SoftwarePositionTriggerMaster(m0, start=5, end=10,
                                                npoints=10, time=5),
              LimaAcquisitionDevice(lima_dev, acq_nb_frames=5, acq_expo_time=0.03,
                                    acq_trigger_mode="INTERNAL_TRIGGER_MULTI"))

Continuous scan example

>>> SCAN_SAVING.template = '/data/id23eh2/inhouse/{date}/{sample}'

>>> SCAN_SAVING.sample = 'HAK1234'

>>> SCAN_SAVING.get_path()
"/data/id23eh2/inhouse/20170324/HAK1234"

>>> from bliss.scanning.scan import Scan

>>> my_continuous_scan = Scan(chain)

>>> my_continuous_scan.start()

Classic step-by-step scans

Directly available as functions from 'bliss.common.standard'
- Example: ascan(axis, start, stop, npoints, count_time, *counters)
Default acquisition chain
Use the same underlying framework as continuous scans

Data Management

Model for organizing acquired data

Mirroring of the Acquisition Chain tree
- each device in the chain has a name
- each device define 1 or more 'AcquisitionChannel' objects
Acquisition channels
- must have a name, a type and a shape
Metadata
- scan_info dictionary ({ key: value, ... }) associated with scans

Online data publishing

While a scan is running, data is published to the redis database provided by Beacon
- scalar values are stored directly
- bigger data (images, spectra) is just referenced
- configurable time to live (TTL)
Any external process can access redis data to perform online data analysis, for example

User

Sequences

Sequences as Python functions

from bliss import * # imports generic scans, cleanup functions, etc
from bliss.setup_globals import * # imports objects from session (setup)
import numpy # I know you dreamt of it
import gevent

def set_detector_cover(in):
    wcidxx.set('detcover', in)
 
    # 5 seconds timeout waiting for detector cover to move
    with gevent.Timeout(5):
        while wcidxx.get('detcover_in') == in:
          time.sleep(0.1)

def my_super_experiment(name):
    safety_shutter.open()

    old_att = attenuators.get()

    def restore_beamline():
        set_detcover_open(False)
        attenuators.set(old_att)

    with cleanup(safety_shutter.close):  # cleanup is always called at the end
        with error_cleanup(restore_beamline):  # this will only be called in case of error
            attenuators.set(50)
            set_detcover_open(True)

            SCAN_SAVING.name = name
            MEASUREMENT_GROUP.enable('diode')
            
            data_node = dscan(m0, -5, 5, 10, 0.1)
            
            for data in data_node.walk_data():
              # do something useful with data...

Sequences as Python functions

from bliss import * # imports generic scans, cleanup functions, etc
from bliss.setup_globals import * # imports objects from session (setup)
import numpy # I know you dreamt of it
import gevent

def set_detector_cover(in):
    wcidxx.set('detcover', in)
 
    # 5 seconds timeout waiting for detector cover to move
    with gevent.Timeout(5):
        while wcidxx.get('detcover_in') == in:
          time.sleep(0.1)

def my_super_experiment(name):
    safety_shutter.open()

    old_att = attenuators.get()

    def restore_beamline():
        set_detcover_open(False)
        attenuators.set(old_att)

    with cleanup(safety_shutter.close):
        with error_cleanup(restore_beamline):
            attenuators.set(50)
            set_detcover_open(True)

            SCAN_SAVING.name = name
            MEASUREMENT_GROUP.enable('diode')
            
            data_node = dscan(m0, -5, 5, 10, 0.1)
            
            for data in data_node.walk_data():
              # do something useful with data...

with cleanup(safety_shutter.close): # cleanup is always called at the end
    with error_cleanup(restore_beamline):  # only called in case of error
        ...

Use of Python context managers for cleanup

Normal Python functions

Easy timeouts with gevent.Timeout

# 5 seconds timeout waiting for detector cover to move
with gevent.Timeout(5):
    while wcidxx.get('detcover_in') == in:
        time.sleep(0.1)

Conclusion

Project state

Current state of deployment
- MX beamlines are already running BLISS
- 3 more beamlines (Materials Science) for the end of the year
- Full deployment in 2020
Project is in active development
- Not ready for use outside ESRF yet
- git repository

Conclusion

Long term project for EBS beamlines
Control paradigm: keep what works, add new concepts
Python scanning framework
Prepared for current and future challenges
- scans with online feedback
- data management
- evolutive platform

Aknowledgements

BLISS core development team

+ ESRF BCU contributing members: A. Beteva, M.C.Dominguez, M. Perez, J. Meyer

ESRF Software Group: A. Goetz

A. Homs

E. Papillon

J. Bodera

C. Guilloud

J. Bodera

M. Guijarro

T. Coutinho

S. Petitdemange

V. Michel