Automation tools in the software development of the TOTEM Detector Control System

The TOTEM experiment at the CERN LHC consists of three different subdetectors. Its Detector Control System (DCS) is built with the industry-supplied PVSS system and extended with components developed at CERN through the Joint Controls Project (JCOP). In view of minimizing the development effort and improving reliability, the TOTEM DCS team has developed various technologies to automate the software development process to a large extent. A unified automatic development for all the three subde-tectors of the experiment saves time, produces more reliable software, and makes maintenance less expensive. The automation process described here may be reused in other industrial automation applications.