M. Perry, D. Elmore, F. Rickey, B. Bhukhanwala, E. Chong

At the Purdue Rare Isotope Measurement Laboratory, we are cycling magnets to obtain isotope ratios. Minimizing cycle time increases the precision of those measurements. The magent change time is a significant fraction of the total cycle time since the magnets must be steady to within a few hundred ppm before measurements can begin. PRIME Lab's goal was to obtain isotope ratios to a precision of 1% or better given sufficient counting statistics. A conventional PID controller was implemented. This reduced the magnet switching time for the injector magnet by approximately 50% and the analyzer magnet by approximately 10%. A dual controller was then implemented. The dual controller consists of an optimization algorithm, called the settling- time optimizer, and a fuzzy logic controller compensates for any disturbances in the system. This controller gave a much better performance by reducing the switching times for both magnets by approximately 75%.