Patent ID: 11875236
Assignee: FISHER-ROSEMOUNT SYSTEMS, INC
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  Y | IPC G

Claim 25:
26. A method of initializing an industrial distributed process control system (DCS) of an industrial process plant, the industrial distributed process control system including a set of pluggable, interchangeable DCS hardware modules, and the method comprising, at each pluggable DCS hardware module:
upon a powering up of the each pluggable DCS hardware module, sensing, by the each pluggable DCS hardware module, a respective I/O type of each interface port included in a plurality of interface ports included in the each pluggable DCS hardware module;
binding, by the each pluggable DCS hardware module to the each interface port, a respective I/O data delivery mechanism corresponding to the respective I/O type;
discovering, by the each pluggable DCS hardware module, one or more physical components of the industrial process plant to which the each pluggable DCS hardware module is communicatively connected via the plurality of interface ports, the one or more physical components including a field device that is communicatively connected to the each pluggable DCS hardware module via a respective interface port, and the field device configured to perform a physical function to control an industrial process during run-time operations of the industrial process plant; and
populating, based on the discovery of the one or more physical components by the each pluggable DCS hardware module, at least a portion of a plant information model of the DCS, the plant information model including:
a description of a control framework of the industrial process plant, the control framework defining respective logical control identifiers of control components of the DCS and hierarchical relationships among the control components, the control components including the field device; and
a description of a control network of the industrial process plant utilized to control the industrial process during the run-time operations of the industrial process plant, the control network including the field device, the respective interface port, and a control routine provided at the each pluggable DCS hardware module; and

executing, by the each pluggable DCS hardware module, the control routine and the respective I/O data delivery mechanism bound to the respective interface port to deliver data between the field device and the control routine to thereby control the industrial process.