Automatic loop testing for a process control loop

A method of automatically testing a process control loop of a process control plant, the method comprising:

• receiving, by one or more computing devices associated with the process control plant, an indication that an automatic test of the process control loop is to be performed, the process control loop to control at least a portion of an industrial process controlled by the process control plant during run-time operations, and the process control loop including a field device, an input/output (I/O) device, and a controller that are communicatively connected, wherein the indication is received from another device upon the field device being assigned to communicate via the I/O device and/or a particular channel of the I/O device;
• in response to receiving the indication that the automatic loop test is to be performed, automatically causing, by the one or more computing devices and exclusively of any user input, the field device to operate in each of a plurality of test states, each one of the plurality of test states corresponding to a respective set of expected behaviors of the process control loop;
• determining, by the one or more computing devices, for each one of the plurality of test states, whether or not a respective resultant behavior of the process control loop is included in the respective set of expected behaviors corresponding to the one of the plurality of test states;
• and
• generating, by the one or more computing devices, an automatic loop test result of the process control loop, the automatic loop test result indicating at least one of (i) a first set of the plurality of test states of the field device for which respective resultant behaviors of the process control loop are included in one or more respective sets of expected behaviors corresponding to the first set of the plurality of test states or (ii) a second set of the plurality of test states of the field device for which respective resultant behaviors of the process control loop are not included in one or more respective sets of expected behaviors corresponding to the second set of the plurality of test states.