Human-Centered Programming: The Design of a Robotic Process Automation Language

Abstract: RPA (Robotic Process Automation) helps automate repetitive tasks performed by users, often across different software solutions. Regardless of the RPA tool chosen, the key problem in automation is analyzing the steps of these tasks. This is usually done by an analyst with the possible participation of the person responsible for the given activity. However, currently there exists no one-size-fits-all description language, which would allow to record, process, and easily automate steps of specific tasks. Every RPA solution uses a different notation, which is not easily human-readable, editable, and which cannot be applied to a different automation platform. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a new eXtensible Robotic Language (XRL) that can be understood by both programmers and non-programmers to automate repetitive business processes.