Robots

Robot Types

What Are Floating Robots?

Floating robots 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.

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. Obviously, I cannot use UiPath Robot on multiple machines simultaneously. If I want to use a different laptop, I am required to log out of the initial session.

Note: In classic folders, only attended robots can be of type floating.

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

Robots can automatically download processes, and execute them under custom settings. You can configure automatic process downloading, logging level, font smoothing, and resolution when configuring robot settings.

In Orchestrator there are two directions in terms of robot management, corresponding to the type of folder they operate in:

Before proceeding to robot behavior in classic folders, it is recommended that you get familiar to some basic notions first. Take a look at the following list of resources:

• The fundamentals of robots in Orchestrator.

Robot management is done manually (Folder context > Robots), meaning you have to configure the robot and machine entities by hand. This includes:

• robot creation (includes configuration of its execution settings, licensing and authentication options)
• robot deletion
• adding a Robot to an environment such that it's able to execute processes from that environment
• removing a Robot from the environment to restrict it from executing the processes.

Unattended robots must be created manually, one for each machine/user combination in your environment.

UiPath Robot can only have access to processes found in one folder at a time. If you want it to have access to processes found in a different classic folder, you are required to delete the corresponding robot entity from the first folder, and provision it in the new one.

In classic folders, you can use any type of standard robot (in conjunction with standard machines) and attended-only floating robots (in conjunction with machine templates).

Robots can automatically download processes, and execute them under custom settings. You can configure automatic process downloading, logging level, font smoothing, and resolution in the Settings tab while creating or editing a robot.

After being created, robots can be monitored on a per-folder basis the Monitoring Robots page (Monitoring > Robots)

Robot Licensing

In classic folders, the license type of the robot is configured when creating or editing the robot entity in Orchestrator. Depending on the robot connection status, some restrictions might apply to editing.

Important: In classic folders, you can use any type of standard robot (in conjunction with standard machines) and attended floating robots (in conjunction with machine templates).

Environments

A grouping of robots in a classic folder is called an environment and it enables you to execute the same package on multiple Robots simultaneously.

Important: If you have multiple Robots on the same machine, it is recommended that you group them in the same environment and Orchestrator tenant. Otherwise, some errors might occur when deploying different versions of the same process.