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

Claim 0:
1. An industrial distributed process control system of an industrial process plant, the industrial distributed process control system (DCS) comprising a set of pluggable, interchangeable DCS hardware modules, and each pluggable, interchangeable DCS hardware module of the set including:
a plurality of interface ports configured to deliver one or more types of I/O data utilized for industrial process control;
one or more processors;
one or more tangible, non-transitory memories;
a discovery engine comprising first computer-executable instructions that are stored on the one or more tangible, non-transitory memories and that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the each pluggable DCS hardware module to automatically:
sense, upon a powering up of the each pluggable DCS hardware module, a respective I/O type of each interface port included in the plurality of interface ports;
bind, to the each interface port, a respective I/O data delivery mechanism corresponding to the respective I/O type;
discover 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 configured to perform a physical function to control an industrial process during run-time operations of the industrial process plant; and
populate, based on the discovery of the one or more physical components, 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, a respective interface port via which the field device is communicatively connected to the each pluggable DCS hardware module, and a control routine provided at the each pluggable DCS hardware module; and

an execution engine comprising second computer-executable instructions that are stored on the one or more tangible, non-transitory memories and that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the each pluggable DCS hardware module to execute 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.