Autonomous distributed thermocouple control

An industrial controller, comprising:

• a memory configured to store at least one thermocouple wrapper that encapsulates at least one thermocouple and at least one thermocouple rule;
• an interface configured to receive at least one business rule for setting a leading thermocouple;
• a processor configured to set the at least one thermocouple as the leading thermocouple based at least in part on the business rule and execute the at least one thermocouple wrapper to validate readings from the at least one thermocouple according to the at least one thermocouple rule.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a memory configured to store at least one thermocouple wrapper that encapsulates at least one thermocouple and at least one thermocouple rule;
• an interface configured to receive at least one business rule for setting a leading thermocouple;
• a processor configured to set the at least one thermocouple as the leading thermocouple based at least in part on the business rule and execute the at least one thermocouple wrapper to validate readings from the at least one thermocouple according to the at least one thermocouple rule.