CN117196187A

CN117196187A - System and method for operating high-density RPA robot

Info

Publication number: CN117196187A
Application number: CN202311068560.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 鞠帅; 李振仕; 李德健; 曾子文
Original assignee: Beijing Zijing Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Zijing Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2023-08-23
Filing date: 2023-08-23
Publication date: 2023-12-08

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of RPA robots, in particular to a system and a method for operating a high-density RPA robot. According to the technical scheme provided by the invention, a plurality of RPA robots can be operated on a single operating system at the same time, and the efficiency and throughput of automatic processing are improved.

Description

System and method for operating high-density RPA robot

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of RPA robots, in particular to a system and a method for operating a high-density RPA robot.

Background

RPA (Robotic Process Automation ) is a software technology that utilizes software robots to simulate and automatically execute repetitive, regular, and predictable business processes performed by humans on computers. With the continuous development of automation technology, the application range of RPA technology has covered various industries and business scenarios, such as tax, finance, insurance, human resources, customer service, logistics, purchasing, and the like. By automating repetitive, tedious and low value tasks, RPA can improve work efficiency, reduce error rates, speed response time, and free time for employees, focusing on higher value work.

Typically, existing RPA systems can only run a single robot on one Windows operating system, and if a large number of RPA tasks are to be completed, the enterprise needs more machine procurement costs, which limits its application in a large-scale enterprise environment.

Therefore, the current RPA system can only run a single robot on a single operating system, which is more restrictive.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above, the present invention is directed to a system and a method for operating a high-density RPA robot, so as to solve the problem that the RPA system in the prior art can only operate a single robot on a single operating system, and has a large limitation.

According to a first aspect of an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a system for operating a high density RPA robot, comprising:

the system comprises a control center and a computer terminal, wherein a main robot is preset on the computer terminal; the control center is remotely connected with the computer terminal;

after the computer terminal is started, starting a host robot preset on the computer terminal to perform environment inspection and initialization actions;

the control center is used for sending a preset auxiliary RPA robot identification list to be started to the host robot;

the host robot is used for creating a plurality of user accounts on an operating system of the computer terminal according to the identification list, carrying out environment initialization on each user account, creating an independent auxiliary RPA robot on each user account and starting;

the host robot is further used for establishing remote connection with each auxiliary RPA robot, so that the auxiliary RPA robots send registration information to the control center;

the control center is further used for receiving and storing the registration information, so that tasks are distributed to the auxiliary RPA robots according to the registration information.

Preferably, the host robot is configured with a background communication service, and receives and executes instructions from a control center by using the background communication service.

Preferably, the host robot is further capable of, when creating a plurality of user accounts on an operating system of the computer terminal according to the identification list:

sequentially judging whether the auxiliary RPA robots corresponding to the auxiliary RPA robot identification list to be started exist or not;

if the remote connection exists, the remote connection is directly established with the auxiliary RPA robot;

and if the auxiliary RPA robot creation operation does not exist, executing the auxiliary RPA robot creation operation.

Preferably, when the host robot performs environment initialization on each user account, an independent working directory, file system authority and network access authority are configured on each user account, and each user account is provided with mutually isolated GUI environments.

Preferably, the host robot is further capable of: acquiring an authentication credential from the control center, and logging in a user of the secondary RPA robot by using the authentication credential; the RDP protocol is used for keeping the implicit remote connection with the auxiliary robot so as to ensure that the GUI environment is normal.

According to a second aspect of an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of operating a high density RPA robot, comprising:

after the environment inspection and the initialization actions are completed, a preset auxiliary RPA robot identification list to be started is sent to the host robot by a preset control center;

the host robot creates a plurality of user accounts on an operating system of the computer terminal according to the identification list, carries out environment initialization on each user account, creates an independent auxiliary RPA robot on each user account and starts;

the host robot establishes remote connection with each auxiliary RPA robot, so that the auxiliary RPA robot sends registration information to the control center;

the control center receives and stores the registration information so that tasks are distributed to the auxiliary RPA robots according to the registration information.

Preferably, the performing the environment checking and initializing actions further includes:

the main robot reads a preset configuration file and acquires initialization parameters from a control center;

performing environment inspection according to the preset configuration file;

and carrying out initialization action according to the initialization parameters.

Preferably, after the environment checking and initializing actions are completed, the method further comprises:

the main robot sends a request to the control center so that the control center judges whether the computer terminal needs to start a plurality of auxiliary RPA robots or not;

and if the host robot receives a starting instruction sent by the control center, continuing to execute a method for running the high-density RPA robot subsequently.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention can comprise the following beneficial effects:

it can be appreciated that the technical scheme provided by the invention shows a system and a method for operating a high-density RPA robot, the system comprises a control center and a preset main robot computer terminal, the control center sends a secondary RPA robot identification list to the main robot, so that the main robot creates a plurality of user accounts on the computer terminal, an independent secondary RPA robot is created on each user account and started, the secondary RPA robot sends registration information to the control center, and a subsequent control center distributes tasks to the secondary RPA robot according to the registration information. According to the technical scheme provided by the invention, a plurality of RPA robots can be operated on a single operating system at the same time, and the efficiency and throughput of automatic processing are improved.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a system for operating a high density RPA robot, according to an example embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a system for operating a high density RPA robot, according to an example embodiment;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating steps of a method of operating a high density RPA robot, according to an example embodiment.

Detailed Description

Reference will now be made in detail to exemplary embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the accompanying drawings, the same numbers in different drawings refer to the same or similar elements, unless otherwise indicated. The implementations described in the following exemplary examples do not represent all implementations consistent with the invention. Rather, they are merely examples of apparatus and methods consistent with aspects of the invention as detailed in the accompanying claims.

Firstly, the prior technical scheme capable of solving the problem that only a single robot can be operated on a single operation system to a certain extent is described:

1. virtualization technology: the use of virtualization technology is a common high density RPA robotic solution. Through the virtualization platform, multiple virtual machine instances can be created in the same physical server or cloud environment, and a separate RPA robot can be run on each instance.

Virtualization technology, while capable of running high density robots on a single physical machine, has significant drawbacks. The resource utilization rate of the virtualization technology is low, and each virtual machine needs an independent operating system and application program, so that a large amount of computing resources and memory space are occupied; the virtualization technology is not supported on a public cloud server, and a physical machine of the server is usually required to be purchased, so that when a large number of robots are required to be deployed, the purchase and maintenance costs of the physical machine are too high; the virtualization technology needs to additionally maintain the stability of the virtual machine, the virtual machine is easy to be blocked, slow and high in memory occupation during long-time operation, and the system resources are required to be released through restarting, so that the greater operation and maintenance difficulty is definitely caused.

2. The container technology comprises the following steps: the containerization technique is another high density RPA robotic solution. By encapsulating the RPA robots and their dependent software, environment configurations into containers, multiple container instances can be run simultaneously in a virtual environment. Each container instance can independently run one RPA robot, enabling high density robot operation.

The containerization technique uses a farm Jing Shouxian, typically most RPA robots run on Windows operating system, interacting with the target system using UI automation techniques. The current containerization technology cannot containerize Windows GUI applications on Windows systems, resulting in usage scenarios with limitations.

3. Multi-process technology: in multi-process mode, multiple RPA robot instances may be run simultaneously, each instance performing tasks in a separate process.

Multiprocessing techniques cannot operate GUI programs simultaneously. When a plurality of RPA robots are operated simultaneously to operate a target window, the window is shielded mutually at present, and when the RPA robots simulate behaviors such as a mouse and a keyboard, the conflict needs to be prevented, so that great difficulty is brought to RPA flow development, and the practicability is not strong.

Therefore, the technical solutions that can solve the problem that only a single robot can run on a single operating system all have larger defects, thereby bringing about larger limitation.

The invention provides a system and a method for operating a high-density RPA robot, which effectively solve the problem that only a single robot can be operated on one Windows operating system at present, can isolate Windows GUI environment, can not conflict with a mouse and a keyboard when interacting with target software, and can stably operate a large number of high-density RPA robots at the same time, thereby improving the efficiency and throughput of automatic task processing.

Example 1

Fig. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a system for operating a high density RPA robot, according to an exemplary embodiment, referring to fig. 1 and 2, a system for operating a high density RPA robot is provided, comprising:

a control center 100 and a computer terminal 200, on which a main robot 201 is preset; the control center is remotely connected with the computer terminal;

after the computer terminal is started, a host robot preset on the computer terminal is started to perform environment inspection and initialization actions.

In specific practice, the process of the host robot can be started automatically along with the system startup of the computer terminal or controlled and started from the control center, firstly, the configuration file is read, and the initialization parameters are acquired from the control center to perform environment inspection and initialization actions. The environment inspection comprises the necessary operation environment inspection of robots such as port occupation inspection, system setting inspection, system authority setting and the like. The initialization includes log, file, resolution, setting up automatic login windows user, etc. and at the same time, starting robot state monitoring.

the host robot is used for creating a plurality of user accounts on an operating system of the computer terminal according to the identification list, carrying out environment initialization on each user account, creating an independent auxiliary RPA robot (201 or 202) on each user account and starting;

in specific practice, multiple user accounts are created on the operating system, each user account corresponding to a separate robotic instance, using the multi-user functionality of the operating system. Each user account is configured to have independent working directory, file system permissions, and network access permissions while having GUI environments isolated from each other. When initializing the high-density robot environment, the host robot creates a corresponding user account for it using an operating system command (net user username password/add) according to the high-density robot information acquired from the control center, and allocates a corresponding right.

In specific practice, after the secondary robot and the primary robot establish connection, the secondary robot has the capability of executing the RPA task, the secondary robot automatically detects that the secondary robot is started and sends registration information to the control center, the control center stores information such as a calling address of the robot, a type of the robot and the like, marks the robot as online, and the control center distributes tasks for the subsequent robot.

It can be appreciated that the technical solution provided in this embodiment shows a system for operating a high-density RPA robot, where the system includes a control center and a preset main robot computer terminal, the control center sends a secondary RPA robot identification list to the main robot, so that the main robot creates multiple user accounts on the computer terminal, creates an independent secondary RPA robot on each user account and starts up, and the secondary RPA robot sends registration information to the control center, so that a subsequent control center distributes tasks to the secondary RPA robot according to the registration information. According to the technical scheme provided by the invention, a plurality of RPA robots can be operated on a single operating system at the same time, and the efficiency and throughput of automatic processing are improved.

The host robot is configured with a background communication service, and receives and executes an instruction from the control center by using the background communication service.

It can be understood that after the host robot is started, the background communication service can be automatically started, and the remote connection is realized through the background communication service and the control center, so that the communication efficiency can be improved, and the operation efficiency of the whole system is improved.

It should be noted that, when the host robot creates a plurality of user accounts on the operating system of the computer terminal according to the identification list, the host robot is further capable of:

The secondary RPA robot creation operation is: and the host robot creates a plurality of user accounts on an operating system of the computer terminal according to the identification list, performs environment initialization on each user account, and creates and starts an independent auxiliary RPA robot on each user account.

In specific practice, the auxiliary RPA robot may already be built on the computer terminal, so in order to improve the operation efficiency of the system, the building of the auxiliary RPA robot may be skipped, and a remote connection may be directly built with the auxiliary RPA robot. If other auxiliary RPA robots are not present on the computer terminal, the auxiliary RPA robot creation operation can be continuously executed, and after the auxiliary RPA robots are created, the auxiliary RPA robots are remotely connected with the created auxiliary RPA robots.

It can be understood that, the technical scheme provided by the embodiment can preferentially judge whether the auxiliary RPA robot exists on the computer terminal, if so, repeated creation is not needed, and the operation efficiency of the system is improved.

When the host robot initializes the environment of each user account, the host robot configures independent working catalogues, file system authorities and network access authorities for each user account, and simultaneously enables each user account to have mutually isolated GUI environments.

It can be appreciated that by performing the environmental initialization on each user account, the subsequently created secondary RPA robots can be made independent of each other, so that one computer device can operate the high-density RPA robots. When the environment initialization is completed and the secondary RPA robot is created, the host robot starts its process.

Note that, the host robot can also: acquiring an authentication credential from the control center, and logging in a user of the secondary RPA robot by using the authentication credential; the RDP protocol is used for keeping the implicit remote connection with the auxiliary robot so as to ensure that the GUI environment is normal.

In addition, in specific practice, the control center serves as a management center for the high-density robots, and has a comprehensive management capability for the master robots and the slave robots. Through functions such as online and offline operation, instruction transmission, remote connection and the like, the control center can realize real-time monitoring and control of the robot, and stable running, task allocation and execution of the robot are ensured to be smoothly carried out.

Management of a main robot: after the main robot is registered in the control center, the control center manages the main robot. The main functions are as follows:

and (5) line up and line down: the control center monitors the online state of the main robot and can perform online and offline operations on the main robot. The on-line operation will cause the host robot to enter a state where it can receive tasks, and the off-line operation will cause it to suspend the task from being received and executed.

Receiving an instruction: the control center sends instructions and tasks to the host robot, including task allocation, configuration updates, and the like. After receiving the instruction, the main robot executes corresponding operation.

Remote connection: the control center has the capability of establishing remote connection with the host robot so as to realize functions of real-time monitoring, remote debugging, log collection and the like.

Restarting: the control center sends a restarting instruction to the main robot to restart the system, so that the stability of the main robot and the effectiveness of updating configuration are ensured.

Automatic updating: the control center may manage the automatic update functions of the master robot, including detection, download, installation, etc. of software versions to maintain the latest functions and performance of the master robot.

High-density robot management: the control center manages the high-density robots, including creating and terminating high-density robot instances, setting rights and configurations, and the like.

Management of the secondary robots: after the auxiliary robot is registered in the control center, the control center manages the auxiliary robot, and has the functions of getting on/off line, receiving instructions, remotely connecting and the like, and the auxiliary robot is the same as the host robot.

Example two

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating steps of a method of operating a high density RPA robot, see fig. 3, according to an exemplary embodiment, providing a method of operating a high density RPA robot, comprising:

step S11, after the computer terminal is started, starting a host robot preset on the computer terminal to perform environment inspection and initialization actions;

step S12, after the environment inspection and the initialization actions are completed, a preset auxiliary RPA robot identification list to be started is sent to the host robot by using a preset control center;

step S13, the host robot creates a plurality of user accounts on an operating system of the computer terminal according to the identification list, carries out environment initialization on each user account, creates an independent auxiliary RPA robot on each user account and starts;

step S14, the host robot establishes remote connection with each auxiliary RPA robot, so that the auxiliary RPA robot sends registration information to the control center;

and step S15, the control center receives and stores the registration information, so that tasks are distributed to the auxiliary RPA robots according to the registration information.

It can be appreciated that the technical solution provided in this embodiment shows a method for operating a high-density RPA robot, where the method enables a control center to send a secondary RPA robot identification list to a host robot, so that the host robot creates multiple user accounts on a computer terminal, creates an independent secondary RPA robot on each user account, and starts the secondary RPA robot, and sends registration information to the control center, so that a subsequent control center allocates tasks to the secondary RPA robot according to the registration information. According to the technical scheme provided by the invention, a plurality of RPA robots can be operated on a single operating system at the same time, and the efficiency and throughput of automatic processing are improved.

The performing the environment checking and initializing actions further includes:

performing environment inspection according to the preset configuration file;

In specific practice, the host robot process is self-initiated as the system boots up or from a control center. Firstly, reading a configuration file, acquiring initialization parameters from a control center, and performing environment inspection and initialization actions. The environment inspection comprises the necessary operation environment inspection of robots such as port occupation inspection, system setting inspection, system authority setting and the like. The initialization includes log, file, resolution, setting up automatic login windows user, etc. and at the same time, starting robot state monitoring.

After the environment checking and initializing actions are completed, the method further comprises:

In specific practice, after the host robot is started, a request can be sent to the control center first, so that the control center makes a pre-judgment, and if the computer terminal does not need to start a plurality of auxiliary RPA robots, the host robot enters a standby program. If the computer terminal needs to start a plurality of auxiliary RPA robots, the method for running the high-density RPA robots subsequently is continuously executed, so that a plurality of auxiliary RPA robots are established.

It can be understood that the technical scheme provided by the embodiment can make a pre-judgment, thereby improving the flexibility of the system.

It is to be understood that the same or similar parts in the above embodiments may be referred to each other, and that in some embodiments, the same or similar parts in other embodiments may be referred to.

It should be noted that in the description of the present invention, the terms "first," "second," and the like are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance. Furthermore, in the description of the present invention, unless otherwise indicated, the meaning of "plurality" means at least two.

Any process or method descriptions in flow charts or otherwise described herein may be understood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code which include one or more executable instructions for implementing specific logical functions or steps of the process, and further implementations are included within the scope of the preferred embodiment of the present invention in which functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionality involved, as would be understood by those reasonably skilled in the art of the present invention.

It is to be understood that portions of the present invention may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof. In the above-described embodiments, the various steps or methods may be implemented in software or firmware stored in a memory and executed by a suitable instruction execution system. For example, if implemented in hardware, as in another embodiment, may be implemented using any one or combination of the following techniques, as is well known in the art: discrete logic circuits having logic gates for implementing logic functions on data signals, application specific integrated circuits having suitable combinational logic gates, programmable Gate Arrays (PGAs), field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), and the like.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that all or a portion of the steps carried out in the method of the above-described embodiments may be implemented by a program to instruct related hardware, where the program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, and where the program, when executed, includes one or a combination of the steps of the method embodiments.

In addition, each functional unit in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated in one processing module, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. The integrated modules may also be stored in a computer readable storage medium if implemented in the form of software functional modules and sold or used as a stand-alone product.

The above-mentioned storage medium may be a read-only memory, a magnetic disk or an optical disk, or the like.

In the description of the present specification, a description referring to terms "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "examples," "specific examples," or "some examples," etc., means that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the present invention. In this specification, schematic representations of the above terms do not necessarily refer to the same embodiments or examples. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples.

While embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described above, it will be understood that the above embodiments are illustrative and not to be construed as limiting the invention, and that variations, modifications, alternatives and variations may be made to the above embodiments by one of ordinary skill in the art within the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A system for operating a high density RPA robot, comprising:

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a controller configured to control the controller,

the host robot is configured with a background communication service, and receives and executes instructions from a control center by utilizing the background communication service.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a controller configured to control the controller,

the host robot is further capable of, when creating a plurality of user accounts on an operating system of the computer terminal according to the identification list:

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a controller configured to control the controller,

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the system further comprises a controller configured to control the controller,

the host robot is further capable of: acquiring an authentication credential from the control center, and logging in a user of the secondary RPA robot by using the authentication credential; the RDP protocol is used for keeping the implicit remote connection with the auxiliary robot so as to ensure that the GUI environment is normal.

6. A method of operating a high density RPA robot, comprising:

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the performing environmental checking and initializing actions further comprises:

performing environment inspection according to the preset configuration file;

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising, after the environment checking and initializing actions are completed: