Methods and devices for the automatic configuration of an exchange field device in a process control system

A configuration provider for automatic configuration of a first field device in a process control system having one or more field devices, the configuration provider includes local storage to store configuration data of the field devices and is configured to be communicatively coupled to the field devices via a communication bus, and the configuration provider is configured to:

• recurrently send an introducing message to the field devices to be introduced to the field devices, wherein the introducing message is a broadcast message;
• register field devices which answer the configuration provider by sending a message, wherein the message comprises identification data of a respective field device;
• send a registration request from the configuration provider to the field devices if the configuration provider identifies a new field device, wherein the registration request is a broadcast message, and wherein a new field device is a field device which sent a message to the configuration provider comprising identification data which were unknown to the configuration provider before having received that message;
• provision and maintain a first list of identification data of known field devices, the known field devices include field devices which are currently registered and field devices which were in the past registered with the configuration provider;
• provision and maintain configuration data belonging to the known field devices of the first list;
• provision and maintain a second list of identification data of active field devices, the active field devices being such field devices which are currently registered with the configuration provider regardless of being past registered with the configuration provider;
• automatically recognize the first field device after removal of a second field device from the process control system and replacement with the first field device, the automatically recognize comprises automatically recognize the new field device as the first field device and a missing field device as the second field device based on comparison of the first list and the second list, wherein the new field device and the missing field device belong to a common device class and no other new field device and missing field device belong to the common device class;
• automatically retrieve and provision configuration data of the second field device from registered field devices;
• and
• automatically configure the first field device using the provisioned configuration data of the second field device.

A system comprising:

• a configuration provider for automatic configuration of a first field device in a process control system having one or more field devices, the configuration provider is communicatively coupled to the field devices via a communication system, and the configuration provider is configured to:
• recurrently send an introducing message to the field devices to be introduced to the field devices, wherein the introducing message is a broadcast message;
• register field devices which answer the configuration provider by sending a message in response to receiving the introducing message, wherein the message comprises identification data of a respective field device;
• send a registration request from the configuration provider to the field devices if the configuration provider identifies a new field device, wherein the registration request is a broadcast message, and wherein a new field device is a field device which sent a message to the configuration provider comprising identification data which were unknown to the configuration provider before having received that message;
• provision and maintain a first list of identification data of known field devices, the known field devices include field devices which are currently registered and field devices which were in the past registered with the configuration provider;
• provision and maintain configuration data belonging to the known field devices of the first list;
• provision and maintain a second list of identification data of active field devices, the active field devices being such field devices which are currently registered with the configuration provider regardless of being past registered with the configuration provider;
• automatically recognize the first field device after removal of a second field device from the process control system and replacement with the first field device, the automatically recognize comprises automatically recognize the new field device as the first field device and a missing field device as the second field device based on comparison of the first list and the second list, wherein the new field device and the missing field device belong to a common device class and no other new field device and missing field device belong to the common device class;
• automatically retrieve and provision configuration data of the second field device from the registered field devices';
• and
• automatically configure the first field device using the provisioned configuration data of the second field device;
• and
• the one or more field devices, each of the field devices having a configuration agent and configured, via the configuration agent, to:
• transmit configuration data to the configuration provider,
• receive configuration data from the configuration provider,
• be configured using the received configuration data from the configuration provider,
• receive an introducing message from the configuration provider, wherein the introducing message is a broadcast message, and
• send a message to the configuration provider to register with the configuration provider, wherein the message comprises identification data of the field device.