Application driven enhancement to industrial automation device via container implementation

An industrial automation device, comprising:

• first processing circuitry configured to perform a first set of operations associated with controlling the industrial automation device or one or more industrial automation devices communicatively coupled to the industrial automation device;
• interface circuitry disposed on the industrial automation device and configured to receive an option card, wherein the option card is configured to be inserted into the interface circuitry and comprises second processing circuitry and a non-transitory computer readable medium having computer-readable instructions, wherein the second processing circuitry is configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to:
• determine whether one or more software containers are present within the option card after the option card is inserted into the interface circuitry;
• in response to determining that the one or more software containers are present within the option card, executing the one or more software containers via computing resources of the option card and the first processing circuitry,
• wherein the one or more software containers are configured to:
• receive data from the industrial automation device, the one or more industrial automation devices, or both;
• perform a second set of operations that differs from the first set of operations, wherein the second set of operations is associated with controlling the industrial automation device or the one or more industrial automation devices;
• and
• adjust one or more operations of the industrial automation device or the one or more industrial automation devices based on the second set of operations.

An industrial automation device, comprising:

• first processing circuitry configured to perform a first set of operations associated with controlling the industrial automation device or one or more industrial automation devices communicatively coupled to the industrial automation device;
• input/output (I/O) circuitry communicatively couplable to an edge device configured to communicatively couple the industrial automation device to a cloud computing system, wherein the edge device comprises peripheral interface circuitry disposed on the industrial automation device and configured to receive an option card, wherein the option card is configured to be inserted into the peripheral interface circuitry and comprises second processing circuitry configured to execute computer-readable instructions to:
• determine whether or one or more software containers are present within the option card after the option card is inserted into the peripheral interface circuitry;
• in response to determining that the one or more software containers are present within the option card, executing the one or more software containers via computing resources of the option card and the first processing circuitry,
• wherein the one or more software containers are configured to:
• receive data from the industrial automation device, the one or more industrial automation devices, or both;
• perform second set of operations that differs from the first set of operations, wherein the second set of operations is associated with controlling the industrial automation device or the one or more industrial automation devices;
• and
• adjust one or more operations of the industrial automation device or the one or more industrial automation devices based on the second set of operations.