Patent ID: 9645907
Date: 2017-05-09
CPC Classifications: G05B,G06F

Claim:
1. A process control system, comprising: an I/O module electrically connectable to a plurality of first field devices; a controller configured to communicate with the plurality of first field devices via the I/O module at a constant frequency; and a device management apparatus configured to acquire information, which the I/O module has obtained from the plurality of first field devices, from the I/O module via the controller and to determine normality of the plurality of first field devices based on the information, wherein the I/O module comprises: a receiver configured to receive first information autonomously transmitted from each of the plurality of first field devices at a non-constant frequency, the first information includes at least one of a self-diagnosis result and an indication that an abnormality occurred; a storage storing the first information of each of plurality of the first field devices received by the receiver; a comparator configured to compare the first information stored in the storage and second information newly received by the receiver for each of the plurality of first field devices to obtain comparative results and to rewrite the first information stored in the storage with the second information newly received by the receiver when the first information stored in the storage is different from the second information newly received by the receiver for each of the plurality of first field devices, the comparative results indicating whether the first information stored in the storage is different from the second information newly received by the receiver for each of the plurality of first field devices; and a comparative result storage storing the comparative results, and the device management apparatus is configured to acquire information of the plurality of first field devices from the I/O module via the controller based on the comparative results stored in the comparative result storage.