APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR AUTONOMOUSLY ADDING AND REMOVING OF FUNCTIONALITY IN PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC CONTROLLERS (PLCS)

摘要

A system for autonomously providing functionality to a computerized control system includes a logic controller running a first computer application relating to an operations system and an application manager that receives requests for functionality from the first computer application. A remote marketplace client is in communication with the application manager and a remote marketplace that offers computer applications for providing a plurality of functionalities relating to the operations system. A computer application repository stores computer applications providing functionality of the operations system and responsive to receiving the request for functionality the application manager forwards the request to the remote marketplace client. The remote marketplace client queries the remote marketplace for the requested functionality and provides results of the query to the application manager. The application manager performs logic operations on the query results to identify an application to provide the requested functionality. The identified application is downloaded from the marketplace.