A method of performing failover for programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in an automation environment and controlling a physical system includes an input/output module receiving sensor inputs from field devices and creating a copy of the sensor inputs for a first group of PLC in a first PLC bank. The input/output module transfers the copy the sensor inputs to each PLC in the first group of PLCs and receives processing results from each PLC in the first group of PLCs in response to transferring the copy of the sensor inputs. The input/output module determines whether there are any inconsistencies between the processing results received from each PLC in the first group of PLCs. If there are any inconsistencies between the processing results received from each PLC in the first group of PLCs, a failover control process is initiated by sending a failover control message to a second input/output module.