ThedevelopmentandmaintenanceofthecontrolsystemsofthefourLargeHadronCollider(LHC)experimentswillrequireanon-negligibleamountofresourcesandeffort.InordertominimisetheoveralleffortrequiredtheJointControlsProject(JCOP)wasset-upasacollaborationbetweenCERNandthefourLHCexperimentstofindandimplementcommonsolutionsforthecontroloftheLHCexperiments.ItisoneofthefewexamplesofsuchawidecollaborationandthereforetheexistenceoftheJCOPprojectisextremelysignificant.Thispaperwillgiveabriefoverviewoftheproject,itsstructureanditshistory.Itwillgoontosummarisethevarioussub-projectsthathavebeeninitiatedundertheauspicesofJCOPtogetherwiththeircurrentstatus.ItwillhighlightthattheJCOPgeneralprincipleistopromotetheuseofindustrialsolutionswhereverpossible.However,thisdoesnotruleouttheprovisionofcustomsulutionswhennon-standarddevicesorverylargenumbersofdeviceshavetobecontrolled.ThepaperwillalsodiscussthearchitectureforeseenbyJCOPandwhereinthisarchitecturethevarioustypesofsolutionsareexpectedtobeused.Finally,althouththeselectionofcommonindustrialandcustomsolutionsisanecessaryconditionofrJCOPtosucceed,theuseofthesesolutionsinthemselveswouldnotnecessarilyleadtotheproductionofhomogeneouscontrolsystems,Therefore,thepaperwillfinishwithadescriptionoftheJCOPFramework,whichisbeingdevelopedtopromotetheuseofthesecommonsolutions,toireducethedevelopmenteffortrequiredbythevariousexperimentdevelopmentteamsandtohelptobuildandintegratecontrolsystemswhichcanbemoreeasilymaintained.
