White Paper on the Control Backbone for Commercial Fusion
The paper argues that as fusion machines advance from laboratory experiments toward pilot and pre-commercial facilities, the control backbone receives less attention than the physics, and that this gap poses a commercial risk, not just an engineering one. Cosylab presented the white paper at the Fusion Industry Association Supply Chain Trade Show in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The paper, available without charge, introduces Fusionics as a fusion I&C platform—the control backbone that coordinates all plant systems, synchronises timing, archives data, and connects operators to the machine.
The platform is structured as a staged product line that grows with the programme from a first diagnostic testbed to a commercially operated facility, without rebuilding the control system at each stage.
Fusionics, as a broader concept, originated as a UKAEA initiative to establish the control, protection, and operation of fusion machines as an engineered industrial discipline, similar to how avionics functions in aerospace.
Cosylab has worked alongside UKAEA on the I&C part of that scope, and designs, builds, and maintains the platform. More broadly, Cosylab also co-developed CODAC, the control system for ITER, and has delivered I&C systems across more than 500 projects in fusion energy, particle physics, radiation oncology, and semiconductor research.
Cosylab is seeking early engagement with commercial fusion developers to validate the platform and shape its roadmap.
*Note: Fusionics does not own the customer’s plasma control algorithms or machine design, which remain the customer’s intellectual property.
"Fusion companies are making billion-dollar hardware decisions before they have decided what control architecture they will use. That is the wrong sequence.
The control system connects every part of the machine. CEOs and CTOs need to treat it as a strategic decision, not a procurement line item.
The control backbone gives them a proven starting point, derived from 25 years of our company building these systems at the world's largest publicly funded fusion facilities."
The Control Backbone for Commercial Fusion →
Download the Fusionics Whitepaper
About Cosylab
Cosylab is a global technology company, specialising in control systems for complex machines in medical, accelerator, fusion and quantum domains. With over 20 years of experience and 400+ successful projects, Cosylab helps customers turn ambitious ideas into working systems faster, safer, and with less risk.