A simple introduction to a complex subject
At Robotics and Automation News, we like real robots, ones that you can see and touch, that are preferably made of metal. However, we might have been remiss in not talking about another kind, the “software robot” that sits inside your computer, watches what you are doing, and learns how to do it for you.
Software developers automate tasks by analysing them in detail, and writing programmes that carry out the task step by step, and then writing something called an Application Programming Interface (API) to link the task into an organisation’s computer system.
The drawbacks here are the usual – some tasks don’t justify the cost of designing a special software system, yet nonetheless many hours of laborious manual inputting needs doing. It is here that Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and software robots are coming into their own. [Read more…] about Robotic Process Automation: How ‘software robots’ are finding their niche