Improving Dependability of Automation for Free Electron Laser FLASH

Free-electron laser FLASH (260-meter-long machine) is a pilot facility for the forthcoming XFEL (3 km). Along with growth of the experiment, service and maintenance are becoming so complex that certain degree of automation seems to be inevitable. The main purpose of the automation software is to facilitate operators with computer-aided supervision of several hardware/software subsystems. The efforts presented in this contribution concern elaboration of general framework for designing and development of automation software for the FLASH. The toolkit facilitates specification, implementation, testing and formal verification. The ultimate goal of the framework is to systematize the way of automation software development and to improve its dependability. At present usefulness of the tools is being evaluated by testing the automation software for single RF-power station of the FLASH.