Provisioning of control layer applications for use in industrial control environments

A programmable logic controller operating in an automation system, the programmable logic controller comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a device memory comprising:
• an app repository for storing one or more control layer applications, each control layer application configured to perform a discrete set of automation functions;
• an isolated app runtime environment configured to execute the control layer applications, wherein the isolated app runtime environment is sandboxed from a general programmable logic controller runtime environment;
• a database comprising a plurality of operator device identifiers;
• a wireless interface allowing the one or more control layer applications to communicate with a plurality of operator devices via the plurality of operator device identifiers;
• a marketplace client configured to communicate with a marketplace server to download the one or more control layer applications;
• and
• a control layer application manager configured to:
• manage execution of the one or more control layer applications on the processor,
• in response to a detected fault, autonomously identify a needed functionality that is not available in the one or more control layer applications, the functionality including at least one of administration, maintenance, or monitoring by the programmable logic controller, and
• autonomously identify and retrieve a new control layer application from the marketplace server via the marketplace client that provides the needed functionality.