Patent ID: RE40817

Claim:
A process control system comprising: a process; a plurality of devices coupled to the process; a communication network coupled to the devices; a workstation coupled to the plurality of devices via the network and including a user interface; and a software system executable on the network and implementing a routine for automatically sensing a connection of a device to a network and placing the connected device in an accessible a standby state for communicating with a user via the user interface prior to commissioning the connected device into a predefined control configuration including: a routine for configuring the connected device in a network control configuration of the plurality of devices, wherein the routine for configuring the connected device further includes: a user-interactive routine for determining a device type of the connected device; a user-interactive routine for determining a role of the connected device with respect to the process control system; a user-interactive routine for assigning a physical device tag the determined role; and a user-interactive routine for verifying connection of the device to the network.