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

For the purpose of this guide, 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

Robot Types

According to Supervision Requirements

Attended Robots

Supervised Robots meaning they 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.

❗️

Important!

You cannot start nor trigger processes from Orchestrator on supervised robots, and they cannot run under a locked screen. They can only be started from the UiPath Robot tray or from the Command Prompt.

Unattended Robots

Autonomous Robots which 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 providing support for work queues.
• NonProduction - Works in unattended mode for development purposes only. Cannot execute test cases.
• Testing - Works in unattended mode for 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.

📘

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 machine level.
Say you have a machine template with 10 unattended runtimes assigned. 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 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 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.

According to the Robot/Machine Interaction

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.

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

📘

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

In modern folders, all robots are of type floating.

Standard Robots

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. Recommended 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.

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

Robot Management

Robot management in Orchestrator is done exclusively from the Management menu. 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:

Automatic Management

Robot management is done mostly automatically (Management > Users), meaning you enable an automatic robot creation option at user level, define its execution settings and authentication credentials, and a floating is automatically created according to the configuration you made.

UiPath Robot has access to whatever processes exist in the folders the user (and machine for unattended) has access to.
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.
In modern folders, you can use machine templates to connect your UiPath Robot to Orchestrator with no restriction in terms of robot type.
After being automatically created, attended robots (or unattended used in attended mode) can be monitored on the Robots page, Monitoring menu. The status and health of unattended runtimes can be checked in the Monitoring menu > Robots > Folder Overview.
Click here for details about robots in modern folders.

Manual Management

Robot management is done manually (Management > 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).
After being created, robots can be monitored on the Robots page, Monitoring menu.
Click here for details about robots in classic folders.

Robot Authentication

There are two ways to authenticate your Robot:

• Using Username/Password Credentials - This is the default method.
• Using SmartCard Authentication - Select the The password represents a SmartCard Pin option to enable this authentication method. This option is only available if the Features.SmartCardAuthentication.Enabled parameter in web.config is set to True.

❗️

Important!

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, thus 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 a 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 in the same time;
  • you can run different processes with all Robots in 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.