Apparatus and method for autonomously adding and removing of functionality in programmable logic controllers (PLCs)

A system for autonomously providing functionality to a computerized control system comprising:

• a hardware logic controller running a first computer application relating to an operations system;
• an application manager stored in a memory, the application manager configured to receive requests for functionality from the first computer application;
• a remote marketplace client in communication with the application manager and a remote marketplace, the remote marketplace offering computer applications for providing a plurality of functionalities relating to the operations system;
• a computer application repository defining one or more memories for storage of computer applications providing functionality of the operations system, wherein responsive to receiving the request for functionality, the application manager forwards the request to the remote marketplace client, the remote marketplace client sends a query to the remote marketplace for the requested functionality and provides results of the query to the application manager, such that the application manager is further configured to perform logic operations on the results of the query, and identify a computer application in the remote marketplace for providing the requested functionality, so as to define an identified computer application that can be transferred to the computer application repository so as to further define a transferred application;
• a computerized application run-time environment for executing one or more computer applications stored in the computer application repository;
• and
• an application runtime application programming interface (API) for providing interconnection of a computer application to functionality of the operations system,
• wherein the transferred application is developed based at least in part on the application runtime API.