Open Source RPA - The new face of innovation and the next evolutionary step in RPA | IA - Part 2 of 6

Introduction

The sign of a maturing market can often be judged by the amount of innovation happening within an industry or sector and Open Source RPA is no different.

In Part 1 we introduced Open Source RPA. We looked at the advantages and disadvantages of Open Source RPA. Now we will introduce you to a variety of Open Source RPA platforms and vendors.

Open Source Robotic Process Automation Platform Providers

OpenRPA

Open RPA is built using a microservice architecture, is very similar to UiPath possessing a drag and drop user interface, much like the larger vendors. OpenFlow can be combined with OpenRPA to orchestrate automations.

Figure 1: Open RPA Development Interface

It’s creator Allan Zimmerman says that OpenRPA is suitable for 

• Companies who want to migrate from other RPA vendors to an open source vendor
• Companies who want a flexible RPA solution with a strong orchestrator
• Companies who want RPA to reduce manual labour costs

Key features

1. Strong orchestrator
2. An Open Source solution that is on par with commercial offerings
3. It is the only RPA platform that is built from the ground up to be secure and flexible
4. The only platform that supports a seamless transition from pure RPA to API based solution with an IAP (Integrated Automation Platform)

Video 1: OpenRPA Browser Automation - Tutorial with Anders Jensen

The entire architecture of the platform is built using a microservice architecture.

Figure 2: Open RPA Architecture

?       Database: All data is stored and backed up here

?       OpenFlow API: Handles all communication in and out of the database and encryption

?       Message Queue: Connects the workflows and the API

?       OpenFlow: Binds all processes together and provides an overview 

?       OpenRPA: Build and design the number of robots needed

Platforms – Windows, Mac OS, Linux

Video 2: OpenRPA with Allan Zimmerman and Nandan Mullakra

Download OpenRPA: https://github.com/open-rpa/openrpa 

PyWinAuto

Pywinauto, not pureplay RPA offering, is a GUI automation library written in pure Python and well developed for Windows GUI automation. At its simplest, it allows you to send mouse and keyboard actions to windows dialogs and controls, but it has support for more complex actions like getting text data.

Figure 3: pywinauto application window

Platforms – Windows

Taskt taskt - free and open-source robotic process automation

Taskt (formerly sharpRPA) is a free and Open Source Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution powered by the .NET Framework. Taskt gives users the ability to automate tasks without writing code.

Top 5 Features

1. Among its features is a screen recorder that records a user’s computer-based actions and then translates those steps into a repeatable script (a.k.a. an RPA bot.)
2. “Bot designer” with a menu of standard commands for no-code RPA development.
3. Gamut of commands for fast operation
4. Offers custom code, OCR, and image recognition
5. It has a screen recorder which has multiple recording options e.g. Screen recorder and element recorder

Video 3: Automation in Action (Source: taskt - free and open-source robotic process automation)

Selenium

Selenium is not the classical RPA tool but some RPA vendors use Selenium as their engine for web automation. Whilst primarily used for automating web applications for testing purposes, but is certainly not limited to just that. Web-based administration tasks can also be automated as well.

• The Selenium Browser Automation Project :: Documentation for Selenium

The Selenium project is made possible by volunteer contributors. The source code freely available for anyone to use and improve.

At the core of Selenium is WebDriver, an interface to write instruction sets that can be run interchangeably in many browsers.

Figure 4: Selenium WebDriver interface.

Selenium resources to help you get up to speed.

• Quick tour
• WebDriver
• IDE
• Grid

Download - SeleniumHQ Browser Automation

Ui.Vision RPA

Ui.Vision RPA, formerly known as Kantu is a cross-platform Open Source Robotic Process Automation(RPA) tool for visual process automation, codeless UI test automation, web scraping and screen scraping. 

The UI Vision RPA core is open-source with enterprise security. The free and open-source browser extension can be extended with local apps for desktop UI automation.

Figure 5: UI Vision RPA Application

UI.Vision RPA has a an extensive command line API. This allows the UI.Vision RPA software to integrate with any application (e. g. Jenkins, Cucumber, CI/CD tools,...) and any programming or scripting language (e. g. C#, Python, Powershell). The API includes detailed error reporting for reliable non-stop RPA operation.

Video 4: Visual UI testing with UI.Vision RPA

In other words, UI.Vision RPA can be remote controlled from any other scripting language via its command line API. And in the other direction, UI.Vision RPA itself can call other scripts and programs via its XRun command

• Website: https://ui.vision/rpa
• Video: https://youtu.be/wH0MLIUdD-Q
• Github repository: https://github.com/A9T9/RPA
• Forum: https://forum.ui.vision/

Platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux.

Conclusion

There is increasing potential for firms to leverage Open Source RPA. There are a great many Open Source RPA providers on the market giving firms a choice of platform.

About the authors: Tolani is a Senior RPA Developer with professional experience in delivering 30+ automated processes in financial services. She is an avid reader and follower of the RPA, Intelligent Automation (IA) and AI spaces. She produces contents on RPA, IA and AI to educate and enlighten people via multiple channels, including Quora and LinkedIn. Recently, she launched the LinkedIn #RPAJargonBuster, a curated news mini-feed on the RPA, IA and AI. Follow her on LinkedIn - https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/tolani-aka-rpa-jargon-buster-jaiye-tikolo/ Follow her on Twitter - https://twitter.com/JaiyeTikolo Follow her on Quora - https://www.quora.com/profile/Tolani-Jaiye-Tikolo

About the authors: Digital Transformation expert. Kieran is recognised as an intelligent automation, data analytics and robotic process automation industry leader. He writes and talks extensively about better ways for businesses to use digital and intelligent automation technologies to drive business performance. Follow Kieran on LinkedIn at https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/kierangilmurray/, join him monthly on LinkedIn live https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/third-thursday or connect on Twitter https://twitter.com/KieranGilmurray. 

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