Patent ID: 7730415

Claim:
A method for configuring a state machine implemented in a function block associated with a process plant via a computing device having a display device and an input device, wherein the state machine transitions between states based on state machine configuration data and one or more state machine inputs, wherein the state machine inputs are associated with operation of the process plant, the method comprising: providing a graphical user interface displayed by the display device, the graphical user interface including a plurality of graphical elements, the graphical elements comprising a first plurality of cells associated with the function block arranged in a matrix having a first dimension and a second dimension, wherein positions along the first dimension correspond to state machine states, and positions along the second dimension correspond to state machine inputs, such that cells in the first plurality of cells define input/state pairs corresponding to the position of the cells relative to the first and second dimensions; receiving state transition data associated with one or more of the plurality of graphical elements via the input device, the state transition data identifying one or more next states to which the state machine transitions following conditions in the process plant corresponding to the input/state pairs defined by one or more of the cells of the first plurality of cells; and storing the state transition data on the first computer readable medium associated with the function block.