Abstract: A robotic process automation (RPA) system provides bots that interact with and provide user credentials to applications, such as for multi-factor authentication (MFA). First user credentials associated with MFA are retrieved by the bots from credential storage. Second user credentials that correspond to questions posed to a user of an application are retrieved from credential storage. Second user credentials that correspond to a one-time password are generated by the RPA system. The second user credentials may also be generated by a third-party authentication service that provides the credentials via a secondary channel such as email or SMS, which are then retrieved for presentation to the application.

Abstract: Improved techniques to access content from documents in an automated fashion. The improved techniques permit content within documents to be retrieved and then used by computer systems operating various software programs (e.g., application programs), such as an extraction program. Documents, especially business transaction documents, often have various descriptors (or tables) and values that form key-value pairs. The improved techniques permit key-value pairs within documents to be recognized and extracted from documents. Consequently, RPA systems are able to accurately understand the content of tables within documents so that users and/or software robots can operate on the documents with increased reliability and flexibility.

Abstract: Improved techniques and systems for creating software automation processes (e.g., software robots, bots) from recordings of interactions with application programs and network-accessible resources are disclosed. The recordings can be captured using a recorder, and the recorder can record not only user interactions with application programs but also Application Programming Interface (API) interactions with network-accessible resources. From one or more of the recordings, a software automation process (e.g., software robot, bot) can be created, and the created software automation process can, when carried out, programmatically initiate (i) user interactions that mimic the user interactions that were recorded, and (ii) API interactions that mimic the API interactions that were recorded.

Abstract: A computerized task automation system operates to permit automation of processes comprising one or more computer implemented tasks. Software robots may be created and retrieved to automate human user interaction with computer systems. The software robots each take one of three forms: (i) an attended software robot that is encoded to interact with one or more application programs and to accept one or more inputs from the user as required by the one or more application programs, (ii) an unattended software robot that is encoded to automatically interact with one or more application programs without any user input; and (iii) a cognitive software robot that is encoded to automatically interact with one or more application programs without any user input and is further encoded to automatically alter its interactions with the one or more application programs by way of a machine learning engine.

Abstract: Improved techniques for producing digital fingerprints to represent steps in a recording of user-initiated events with respect to one or more application programs. A digital fingerprint can be formed for each step in a recording by encoding a plurality of attributes for each step in the recording. The encodings can be determined differently for different attributes of the steps. Also, the particular attributes to be used together to form a digital fingerprint can be chosen differently to adjust effectiveness in matching such step with other similar steps. In one embodiment, the digital fingerprint for a given step in a given situation can dynamically generated, such as a request to a server to generate a fingerprint.

Abstract: Improved techniques to access content from documents in an automated fashion. The improved techniques permit content within documents to be retrieved and then used by computer systems operating various software programs (e.g., application programs), such as an extraction program. Documents, especially business transaction documents, often have various descriptors (or tables) and values that form key-value pairs. The improved techniques permit key-value pairs within documents to be recognized and extracted from documents. Consequently, RPA systems are able to accurately understand the content of tables within documents so that users and/or software robots can operate on the documents with increased reliability and flexibility.

Abstract: A computerized task automation system provides for software robots encoded with a set of instructions that cause the software robot to interact with one or more applications to perform one or more tasks with the one or more applications to complete a task in a manner that a user would perform the task. The system responds to an execution request that specifies a first software robot by retrieving the first software robot and enabling execution. The first software robot has encoded a first instruction that requires the software robot to await occurrence of a first trigger that specifies occurrence of a first event in order to execute the first instruction, and a second trigger that specifies occurrence of a second event in order to execute the first instruction. Execution of the first software robot is initiated only upon occurrence of the first and the second trigger.

Abstract: A portable unit is created on a first computer to be executed on one or more remote computers. The portable unit includes an execution file having one or more tasks. Additionally, data relationships between applications are identified. Users can create adapters that enable application automation processes to allow customers to define compliance boundaries and to allow for automation of upgraded applications. The applications can be updated by collecting automation information and employing an artificial intelligence engine to generate updated automation criteria. Automation can be generated based on return on investment. A dashboard is automatically generated to permit viewing of indicators regarding automation tasks.

Abstract: Robotic process automation (RPA) systems with improved playback capabilities are disclosed. Certain embodiments can provide resilient playback of software automation processes by providing enhanced capabilities to locate user interface controls within a screen image of a user interface of an application program being utilized by the software automation processes. Using such capabilities, embodiments can provide resilient playback of software automation processes by providing the capability to resolve playback errors by detecting user interface controls within at least one screen image of a user interface that was captured when the software automation process was created. Advantageously, embodiments disclosed herein allow software automation processes to continue to operate over time and thus with greater resiliency and flexibility.

Abstract: Improved techniques for examining a plurality of distinct recordings pertaining to user interactions with one or more software applications, where each recording concerns performing at least one task. The examined recordings can be processed such that the recordings can be organized and/or rendered in a consolidated manner which facilitates user's understanding of higher-level operations being performed by the examined recordings to carry out the associated task.

Abstract: Systems and methods for locating repeatable user-driven processes in recordings of users interacting with application programs. The processing, such as by a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) system, to locate repeatable user-driven processes can, for example, initially acquire various recordings of one or more users interacting with one or more application programs operating on one or more user devices. The recordings can include at least user-triggered events as well as a User Interface (UI) screen image captured for each of the user-triggered events. By processing the captured UI screens from the recordings, those of the screen images that are more likely (or predictably) used to start or stop a repeatable user-driven process can be selected. Thereafter, repeatable user-driven processes within the recordings can be identified based on the selected screen images. Advantageously, the repeatable user-driven processes found within the recordings can thereafter be converted into software robots.

Abstract: Robotic process automation (RPA) tasks for operating on data within a productivity program may be initiated by single user action from within the productivity program. A user device is provided with a plugin program that provides an automation user interface within the productivity program. A request to perform an automation task on data in a productivity file is received along with identification of a software robot to perform the automation task. The request also specifies data from the productivity file. The request is provided to a control room server that controls execution of a plurality of different automation tasks by a plurality of different software robots. Results of the automation task are received from the control room server and are provided to the plugin program, which provides the results of the automation task to the user within a productivity file accessible by the user.

Abstract: Improved techniques for secure access to cloud-based services via a gateway proxy. The improved techniques can efficiently manage remote access to cloud-based services by local processing agents in a secure manner using an intermediate authentication token issued by a gateway proxy to authorized local processing agents. The intermediate authentication token can be used to obtain authentication credentials of service providers that are needed to access the cloud-based services that are offered by service providers. In some embodiments, the authentication credentials of service providers need only be distributed to the gateway proxy and need not be distributed beyond the gateway proxy. The improved techniques are well suited for used with robotic process automation systems in which local processing agents, such as software agents, perform user tasks in an automated fashion.

Abstract: Improved techniques for combining a plurality of distinct recordings pertaining to user interactions with one or more software applications each of which concerns performing a task. Then, the combined recording can be used to form a software automation process for performing the task in an automated fashion. Advantageously, the improved techniques enable a robotic process automation (RPA) system to capture multiple recordings, combine (e.g., merge) the recordings, and form a software automation process to perform repetitive tasks in an automated manner, all with little or no assistance from a user.

Abstract: Task automation is enabled by recording, over a period of time, inputs of a computing device user to generate a log of inputs by the user in connection with one or more task applications. The user inputs are stored along with information pertaining to the one or more task applications. The log is processed to identify the one or more task applications to generate a user task file. The log is further processed to identify the fields in the task applications with which the user entered inputs and the identified fields are stored to the task file. The task file is processed to identify one or more tasks performed by the user. An automated software robot which is encoded with instructions to perform automatically, when invoked, one or more of the tasks performed by the user may be automatically generated.

Abstract: A robotic process automation system includes a server processor that performs an automation task to process a work item, by initiating a java virtual machine on a second device. A first user session that employs credentials of a first user for managing execution of the automation task is also initiated on the second device. The server processor loads into the java virtual machine, with a platform class loader, one or more modules, such as logging and security, that perform functions common to the sets of task processing instructions. A first class loader a first set of task processing instructions is also loaded. Then each instruction in the first set of task processing instructions is loaded with a separate class loader. The server processor causes execution, under control of the first user session, on the second device, the task processing instructions that correspond to the work item.

Abstract: Computerized RPA methods and systems that increase the flexibility and lower the cost with which RPA systems may be deployed are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, an RPA system and method avoids the need for preinstalled RPA software on a device employed by a user to create and/or execute software robots to perform RPA. In another embodiment, an RPA system and method provides a capability to execute software robots that may have been encoded in one or more programming languages to execute on an operating system different than that employed by a server of the RPA system.

Abstract: Computerized detection of one or more user interface objects is performed by processing an image file containing one or more user interface objects of a user interface generated by an application program. Sub-control objects can be detected in the image file, where each sub-control object can form a portion of a user interface object that receives user input. Extraneous sub-control objects can be detected. Sub-control objects that overlap with or that are within a predetermined vicinity of an identified set of sub-control objects can be removed. Sub-control objects in the identified set of sub-control objects can be correlated to combine one or more of the sub-control objects in the identified set of sub-control objects to generate control objects that correspond to certain of the user interface objects of the user interface generated by the application program.

Abstract: Improved techniques for examining a plurality of distinct recordings pertaining to user interactions with one or more software applications, where each recording concerns performing at least one task. The examined recordings can be processed such that the recordings can be organized and/or rendered in a consolidated manner which facilitates user's understanding of higher-level operations being performed by the examined recordings to carry out the associated task. Advantageously, the improved techniques enable a robotic process automation (RPA) system to recognize and represent repetitive tasks within multiple recordings as multi-level (e.g., hierarchical) patterns of steps, sub-tasks, or some combination thereof. In doing so, a RPA system can identify and define such patterns within recordings and can also accommodate variants in such patterns.

Abstract: Image encoded documents are identified by recognizing known objects in each document with an object recognizer. The objects in each page are filtered to remove lower order objects. Known features in the objects are recognized by sequentially organizing each object in each filtered page into a one-dimensional array, where each object is positioned in a corresponding one-dimensional array as a function of location in the corresponding filtered page. The one-dimensional array is then compared to known arrays to classify the image document corresponding to the one-dimensional array.