Robots

UiPath Robot is the execution host that runs processes built in UiPath Studio. In Orchestrator, a robot entity represents an image of UiPath Robot and controls its capabilities.

The Robot documentation guide in the UiPath suite can be found here. In this guide, the focus is on robot entities as found in Orchestrator and the capabilities they provide for UiPath Robot based on their types.

For this guide's purpose, we assume that a machine represents a physical or virtual machine on which UiPath Robot is installed. In Orchestrator, there are two machine entities that work as API key generators, which authorize the connection between UiPath Robot and Orchestrator. They are described in-depth here.

Disambiguation

Common Terminology	Meaning
UiPath Robot	The Robot component in the UiPath suite.
Machine	The physical or virtual machine used to host and deploy UiPath Robot. In this guide, it is usually referred to as a host machine, workstation or server, to differentiate it from the machine entity in Orchestrator.
Robot (Orchestrator Entity)	Orchestrator entity that controls the connection capabilities of UiPath Robot with respect to the host machine on which it's installed. It is to be used in conjunction with the machine entity. Details below.
Machine (Orchestrator Entity)	Orchestrator entity that works as an API key generator, offering authorization capabilities for UiPath Robot. It is to be used in conjunction with the robot entity.

Robots in modern folders operate on a floating model basis. They enable multiple users to use UiPath Robot on multiple workstations, as the robot is not tied to a specific machine. One user can use UiPath Robot on one machine at a time.

A user changing the workstation requires them to log out of the previously used machine and log into the new one.

My name is John Smith. I am a call center operator in a team of 20, working on whatever laptop I find available when I get to work. In Orchestrator, my system administrator needs to define one machine template for the 20 laptops we have and a floating robot using my username. This enables me to use each of the 20 laptops using my username and the machine template's key. Obviously, I cannot use UiPath Robot on multiple machines simultaneously. If I want to use a different laptop, I must log out of the initial session.

Click here for more sample scenarios and the recommended Orchestrator setup in modern folders.

Robot Types

Attended Robots

Supervised Robots that run under human supervision. Can be further classified according to their licensing type as follows:

• Attended - Works on the same workstation as a human user and is launched through user events.
• Studio - Connects your Studio to Orchestrator for development purposes.
• StudioX - Connects your StudioX to Orchestrator for development purposes.
• StudioPro - Connects your StudioPro to Orchestrator for development purposes.
  Warning:

  You can only launch processes in Orchestrator on supervised Robots as a personal workspace owner using the machine template automatically generated on your behalf.

  Apart from that, you cannot start or trigger processes in Orchestrator on supervised robots, and they cannot run under a locked screen. They can only be started from the UiPath Robot tray or the Command Prompt.

Unattended Robots

Autonomous Robots that don't require human supervision to execute jobs. Can be further classified according to their licensing type as follows:

• Unattended - Runs without human supervision in virtual environments and can automate any number of processes. Has all the capabilities of an attended robot plus remote execution, monitoring, scheduling, and support for work queues. Can execute any process type except for test cases.
• NonProduction - Works in unattended mode for development purposes only. Cannot execute test cases.
• Testing - Works in unattended mode for development and testing purposes. Can execute test cases.

Robots become automatically licensed when you open the UiPath Robot tray. All types of robots except for StudioX can run in debug mode in Studio.

Note:

For unattended robots, licensing is performed per allocated runtime (slot) entity instead of per user. That's why Unattended, NonProduction, Testing runtimes are assigned at the machine level.

Say you have a machine template defined with 10 unattended runtimes. For each workstation connected using the key generated by that template, a pool of 10 licenses is reserved from the total number of licenses at the tenant level. A runtime is only consumed from the pool of reserved licenses during job execution. If you connect 4 machines to Orchestrator using that template, you need 40 unattended runtime licenses at the tenant level. With 25 jobs running, there are still 15 slots available for execution.

Unattended robots can be used in attended mode in a production environment (the user logs on to the machine) for logging/testing/debugging purposes.

What Are Floating Robots?

Floating robots are robots that enable multiple users to use UiPath Robot on multiple workstations, as the robot is not tied to a specific machine. One user can use UiPath Robot on one machine at a time.

Changing the workstation a user is working on requires them to log out of a previously used machine and log into the new one.

Example

My name is John Smith, I am a call center operator in a team of 20 working on whatever laptop I find available when I get to work. In Orchestrator, my system administrator needs to define one machine template for the 20 laptops we have, and a floating robot using my username. This enables me to use each of the 20 laptops using my username and the key generated by the machine template.

What Are Standard Robots?

Standard robots are the predecessors of floating robots, and you can only find them when working with classic folders. A standard robot restricts the user to use UiPath Robot on a single workstation, as the robot is tied to a specific machine, namely the one set when creating the standard robot in Orchestrator. Standard robots work only for users who always work on the same machine or whose name stays the same each time the user connects to it.

Changing the workstation requires deleting the initial standard robot and recreating it using the name of the new standard machine.

Example

My name is John Smith, I am a call center operator working daily on the same laptop whose name is LA4324. In Orchestrator, my system administrator needs to define for me a standard machine with the same exact name as my laptop, and a standard robot using my username, robot configured to connect to the standard machine named LA4324. If I ever change my laptop, the system administrator needs to delete this robot, and create a new one, for the new machine.

Robot Management

Robot management is performed on the Users page and involves enabling automatic robot creation for the desired user identity. The robot is automatically created according to your settings. Robot management is done automatically i.e. you enable automatic robot creation at the user level, define its execution settings and authentication credentials, and a floating robot is automatically created.

UiPath Robot has access to the resources residing in the folders the user (and machine for unattended) has access to.

Attended robots (or unattended used in attended mode) can be monitored at the tenant level on the Robots page. Unattended machines and runtimes can be monitored at the folder level (Monitoring > Machines). Automatic robot management can be configured for directory users or directory groups as well. The automatic robot provisioning setting for a directory group that's added to Orchestrator is inherited by any user that is a member of that AD group. Robot auto-provisioning is only valid for attended robots.

Click here for details about robots in modern folders.

Robot Authentication

• Username/Password Credentials - This is the default method.
• SmartCard Authentication
• HSM: Luna Credential System, nShield Key Storage Provider
  Warning:

  Robot start commands are received through SignalR or requested on a heartbeat. The username and password UiPath Robot uses for authentication purposes are transmitted only on heartbeats, enabling it to log in and execute processes.

  Attended robots do not require a password to authenticate, and as such, don't support SmartCard authentication.

  You cannot execute processes on unattended robots unless you provided the correct user credentials.

High-Density Robots

Regardless of the Windows version a machine is running on, if you have multiple users on it, you can register a Robot on each of the users. This feature is called High-Density Robots and ensures full utilization of each machine at your disposal at its maximum potential. It can be applied to all types of Robots (Attended, Unattended, and NonProduction).

The High-Density environment has the following advantages on a machine with a Windows Server (2008 R2 or 2012 R2 or 2016) operating system:

• you can run the same process with all Robots at the same time;
• you can run different processes with all Robots at the same time.

To set up High-Density Robots on a Windows Server machine, please see the Setting Up Windows Server for High-Density Robots chapter.

Note: On the same machine, you have to connect all users as Robots to Orchestrator, all with the same Machine Name and Key.

If you register a new Robot to Orchestrator on a machine while the UiPath Robot service is running, you have to restart the service.

If the username and/or password filled in when deploying the Robot to Orchestrator do not correspond to the Windows credentials for the specified user, the first job you run is faulted, and a "Logon failure" message is displayed in the Job Details window.