Patent ID: 11880181
Assignee: FIELDCOMM GROUP, INC.
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  Y | IPC G

Claim 10:
11. A method at a requesting device associated with an industrial process plant, the method comprising:
sending, by the requesting device, a request to control a field device that is functionally operable during run-time of a process control system to perform physical actions responsive to control signals to thereby control an industrial process, the field device being in a locked mode that is activated without using a physical lock, indicative of the field device being functionally unresponsive to instructions issued by devices other than devices that provide indications of respective digital safety lock keys of one or more locking parties that activated one or more digital safety locks at the field device;
receiving, at the requesting device and responsive to the sent control request, (i) an indication that the field device is in the locked mode, and (ii) an indication of a locking party corresponding to the locked mode;
causing, by the requesting device, a digital safety lock key corresponding to the locking party to be transmitted to the field device; and
obtaining control of the field device based on the transmitted digital safety lock key corresponding to the locking party.