In their early days in industrial factory floor use, robots focused on simple, non-decision-making processes. But as digitalization gathers momentum, robotics is taking on more complex and more automated functions in the form of robotic process automation (RPA). 

RPA technology has evolved from running one robot to running integrated robots simultaneously assembling a product, for example, to the point where a series of robots works together to deal with workflows that encompass assembly, welding, finishing, and shipping. 

Related: Making the Case for Employing Software Robots

The SS&C Blue Prism intelligent automation platform combines RPA, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) to achieve strategic business goals. It offers a secure, stable, and compliant environment to propel digital transformation. The company offers pre-built automations, support from automation specialists, and training and certification opportunities. The target buyer is typically a large enterprise across a great many verticals as it has customized offerings for dozens of industries. 

IBM Robotic Process Automation with Automation Anywhere is a robotic process automation solution that mimics the behavior of a human business user to perform repetitive tasks. It provides an entry point into the world of automated digital labor and the digital workforce. The focus is on large enterprise users and especially existing IBM customers as opposed to competing directly in the broader market. 

Harness the Kofax Intelligent Automation Platform to unlock document intelligence, connect disparate systems, and orchestrate human and digital workers to execute and automate workflows across high-value business processes. 

In other words, it applies RPA to workflows such as insurance claims, document processing, HR processes, and invoices. Kofax tends to mainly sell its broader Intelligent Automation Platform as opposed to selling Kofax RPA as a discrete element. This tends to limit its applicability to those willing to invest in the larger product suite.

Automation Anywhere’s Automation 360 is a cloud-native end-to-end intelligent automation platform used by enterprises to automate processes with minimal infrastructure. This offering has a high usage rate among SMBs as well as large enterprises. 

The company is particularly strong in bringing together business process automation (BPA) and RPA and delivering them over the public cloud. Those seeking that combination will find Automation 360 hard to beat. 

Datamatics TruBot RPA software is a digital workforce product enabling unattended and attended automation for a wide range of tasks and processes. With the integration of cognitive capabilities, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing, it can handle complex transactions and deliver intelligent automation. The focus, in this case, is heavily weighted towards the application of RPA to financial transactions and accounting. 

Microsoft’s Power Automate platform empowers people to build automated processes with flows in Power Automate. This is another low-code RPA toolset that offers drag-and-drop tools and hundreds of pre-built connectors that automate repetitive tasks. This product is particularly suited to those that have already bought into the Azure platform whether large organizations or SMBs. 

Workfusion is another of the no-code/low-code vendors.​ Its approach helps make the development process easier. Simple drag-and-drop building blocks are used along with pre-built steps and workflows to make core processes integration-ready, out of the box. 

This platform, therefore, is particularly good for those lacking RPA development and integration expertise. It also tends to focus on the large enterprise market, particularly in the North American market and with a small footprint in Asia.

UIPath can discover and manage automation opportunities with transparency and control. It can automate processes rapidly with drag-and-drop AI and ready-to-go templates. Further, it includes governance, security, scalability, and performance features. UIPath offers rich governance with its customer base spread across large and midsized enterprises as well as larger SMBs.

RPA software is needed to bring everything together, combining the processes with the actions of the robots. This category of tools is all about harnessing robots more efficiently. It automates repetitive, labor-intensive, and time-consuming tasks, minimizing or eliminating human involvement to drive faster and more efficient processes across the factory floor. 

Instead of having dozens of workers in a manufacturing plant, an RPA specialist can program and run robots to perform those duties. Typically, another person is involved with servicing, maintaining, and repairing the hardware. 

RPA software features vary tremendously from vendor to vendor and application to application. Some deal exclusively with stationary robots, some with mobile robots, and others with several robots working in concert. Thus, the robot controllers that tie everything together tend to be specific to one platform or designed to integrate a couple of platforms such as Ethernet TCP/IP, Ethernet IP, EtherCat, PROFIBUS, PROFINET, and DeviceNet. Depending on the function of the robot, the process involved, and the communication protocols used, RPA software allows robots to communicate with other robots as well as supervisory servers, Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), vision systems, sensors, and other devices.

But the benefits are many. These include a substantial reduction in labor requirements, more accuracy, increased process speed, lower manufacturing costs (if you can afford the equipment), the ability to control factory processes remotely, streamlined workflow management, improved scalability, and better security. 

The latest trend is for RPA to be integrated with AI to deal with high-volume, repeatable tasks. By handing these tasks over to robots, labor costs are reduced, workflows can be streamlined, and assembly processes accelerated. Software can be written, for example, to take care of routine queries, calculations, and record keeping. 

Historically, two different teams and two different kinds of software were needed in industrial settings: RPA software and factory automation systems. The robotics team consists of specialized technicians with their own programming language to deal with the complex kinematics of multi-axis robots. Factory automation engineers, on the other hand, use PLCs and shop floor systems that utilize different programming languages. But software is now on the market that brings these two worlds together. 

Further, better software and more sophisticated hardware have opened the door to a whole new breed of robot. While basic models operate on two axes, the latest breed of robotic machinery with AI is capable of movement on six axes. They can be programmed to either carry out one task over and over with high accuracy and speed or execute complex tasks such as coating or machining intricate components. 

“For stationary robots to work seamlessly with mobile robots, it is essential that they can exchange information accurately and without failure,” said Samir Patel, Senior Director, Robotics Engineering at Kawasaki Robotics USA. 

Comparing RPA software vendor to vendor is a less straightforward process than it is in other areas of software. When selecting a vendor, it is best to narrow your focus to the protocols and functions your organization requires. That should slim the number of prospective candidates down considerably.

Read next: How to Choose RPA Software: 8 Things to Consider

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