Robocorp and RPA: The Complete Guide to Open-Source Robotic Process Automation Using Python

1. Introduction: The Age of Automation

In the last two decades, technology has revolutionized every corner of business and daily life. What once required human effort — entering data, copying files, verifying reports — can now be handled automatically by software bots. These digital workers can perform tasks 24/7, without fatigue, errors, or complaints.

This revolution is driven by Robotic Process Automation (RPA) — a technology that lets computers mimic human actions on digital systems. From banks processing thousands of transactions to hospitals handling patient records, RPA has become a foundation of modern business efficiency.

However, until recently, most RPA platforms were proprietary, expensive, and closed-source. Tools like UiPath, Blue Prism, and Automation Anywhere dominated the market but limited developer flexibility. That changed when Robocorp entered the scene — offering an open-source, Python-based RPA platform that combines the power of traditional automation with the flexibility of programming.

This article explores that world — what RPA is, how Robocorp works, how to build bots, and why open-source automation is shaping the future of intelligent work.

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2. What Is RPA (Robotic Process Automation)?

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) refers to using software robots (“bots”) to automate repetitive, rule-based tasks that humans perform on computers.

Imagine you have an employee who logs into a website daily, downloads an Excel file, copies some numbers into another system, and sends a report by email. With RPA, you can train a bot to do that — faster and error-free.

🧩 Key Concept: Mimicking Human Actions

Unlike traditional automation (which connects systems via APIs or backend logic), RPA operates at the user interface (UI) level — just like a human would. Bots can:

• Click buttons
• Type into forms
• Read data from PDFs
• Copy and paste between applications
• Interact with browsers, Excel, databases, and more

This makes RPA extremely valuable for legacy systems that lack APIs or modern integration options.

💡 Common RPA Use Cases

Industry	Examples of RPA Automation
Finance & Accounting	Invoice processing, reconciliation, report generation
Healthcare	Patient data entry, insurance verification
HR	Payroll, onboarding, compliance updates
Retail	Inventory management, order processing
Customer Service	Email routing, ticket categorization
IT Operations	User provisioning, system monitoring

RPA reduces human error, speeds up processes, and allows employees to focus on creative or analytical work instead of repetitive tasks.

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3. The Evolution of RPA: From Legacy Tools to Open Source

RPA started in the early 2000s with enterprise tools like Blue Prism. It offered a “visual drag-and-drop” interface to automate workflows without coding. Later came UiPath and Automation Anywhere, which added more sophistication, AI integrations, and enterprise-level orchestration.

However, these tools shared common limitations:

1. High licensing costs — often priced per bot or per user.
2. Closed ecosystems — developers couldn’t freely extend or integrate custom Python or JavaScript code.
3. Complex deployment — requiring enterprise servers and administrators.

As Python became the most popular automation language, the developer community started exploring open-source RPA — automation that’s scriptable, portable, and transparent.

That’s where Robocorp entered.

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4. What Is Robocorp?

Robocorp is a company and open-source platform that provides the tools to build, run, and manage software robots using Python and the Robot Framework ecosystem.

It bridges the gap between low-code RPA and traditional scripting — giving developers a structured yet flexible environment for building robust automations.

🏢 A Brief History

Robocorp was founded in 2019 by Antti Karjalainen in Finland. The company’s mission is simple:

“To democratize RPA by making it open, developer-friendly, and affordable for everyone.”

Since its launch, Robocorp has gained attention from both enterprises and developers because it combines:

• Open-source tools (no licensing costs)
• Python flexibility (build custom logic)
• Cloud orchestration (Control Room for deployment)

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5. Robocorp’s Ecosystem: The Core Components

Robocorp isn’t a single tool — it’s a complete ecosystem of components that work together for end-to-end RPA development.

🧰 1. Robocorp Code (VS Code Extension)

This is the official VS Code plugin that allows you to create, test, and debug robots directly in Visual Studio Code.
It provides templates, syntax highlighting, and integrated Control Room connections.

💻 2. Robocorp Lab (Legacy)

Previously, Robocorp offered a standalone desktop IDE called Robocorp Lab. It has since been replaced by the more flexible Robocorp Code extension.

☁️ 3. Control Room

This is Robocorp’s cloud orchestration platform. It lets you:

• Deploy and schedule robots
• Manage credentials and environments
• Track logs and bot performance
• Trigger bots via API or webhook

Think of it as the “mission control” for your digital workforce.

📦 4. RPA Framework Libraries

These are open-source Python libraries built specifically for automation.
Examples include:

• RPA.Browser.Playwright → for browser automation
• RPA.Excel.Files → for Excel automation
• RPA.PDF → for extracting data from PDFs
• RPA.Email.ImapSmtp → for handling emails

Each library is modular and can be used directly in Python scripts or Robot Framework tasks.

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6. Robocorp, Robot Framework, and RPA Framework — How They Connect

One key strength of Robocorp is how it builds upon Robot Framework, an established open-source tool originally developed for test automation.

⚙️ Robot Framework

• A generic automation framework written in Python.
• Uses human-readable syntax like:

*** Tasks ***
Open Website
    Open Browser    https://example.com    Chrome
    Input Text    username    admin
    Input Text    password    1234
    Click Button    login

This made it ideal for business process automation as well.

🤝 RPA Framework

Robocorp extends Robot Framework with the RPA Framework — a collection of Python libraries and tools built for RPA-specific tasks: file handling, email, browser control, Excel, PDF, etc.

🧩 Python Integration

Developers can freely mix Robot Framework syntax with Python code:

from RPA.Excel.Files import Files

excel = Files()
excel.open_workbook("data.xlsx")
data = excel.read_worksheet_as_table("Sheet1")
excel.close_workbook()

This hybrid flexibility gives Robocorp a major advantage — low-code syntax for simple users, and full Python scripting for advanced ones.

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7. How Robocorp RPA Works: The Internal Architecture

Let’s look at how a Robocorp robot project is structured.

📁 Project Structure Example

my-robot/
│
├── tasks.robot
├── variables.yaml
├── libraries/
│   ├── custom.py
│
├── output/
│   ├── log.html
│   ├── report.html
│
├── conda.yaml
└── robot.yaml

• tasks.robot → main entry file (contains automation steps)
• conda.yaml → defines Python dependencies
• robot.yaml → describes task metadata for Control Room
• libraries/ → your custom Python code
• output/ → logs and reports

🧠 Execution Flow

1. Define the automation logic in .robot or .py files.
2. Run locally using Robocorp Code or the CLI.
3. Test and debug logs in output/log.html.
4. Upload to Control Room for scheduling and remote execution.

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8. Setting Up Robocorp (Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners)

Let’s go through the setup process.

🪜 Step 1: Install VS Code and Robocorp Extension

Download Visual Studio Code and install the Robocorp Code extension from the marketplace.

🪜 Step 2: Install Python

Ensure Python 3.8+ is installed and added to your PATH.

🪜 Step 3: Create a New Robot Project

Open the Command Palette in VS Code → choose “Robocorp: Create Robot” → select a template such as “Browser Automation.”

This creates a folder with a pre-configured robot.yaml, conda.yaml, and task file.

🪜 Step 4: Run Your Robot Locally

Use the VS Code “Run Robot” button — the output log appears in the terminal or browser.

🪜 Step 5: Connect to Control Room

Sign up at robocorp.com, create a workspace, and link your robot for cloud execution.

You can now schedule, trigger via API, and monitor execution remotely.

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9. Example: Building Your First Robocorp RPA Bot

Let’s automate a simple business process — extracting invoice data from emails and storing it in Excel.

🧩 Step 1: Define the Workflow

1. Connect to an email inbox.
2. Download PDF attachments.
3. Extract key data (invoice number, date, total).
4. Append the data to an Excel file.

💻 Step 2: Example Code (Python)

from RPA.Email.ImapSmtp import ImapSmtp
from RPA.PDF import PDF
from RPA.Excel.Files import Files

# Connect to email
email = ImapSmtp()
email.connect("imap.gmail.com", "myemail@gmail.com", "mypassword")

# Search and download attachments
emails = email.list_messages(criteria="UNSEEN")
for msg in emails:
    attachments = email.save_attachments(msg)
    for file in attachments:
        pdf = PDF()
        data = pdf.get_text_from_pdf(file)
        # extract fields from text (simplified)
        print("Extracted:", data)

# Save to Excel
excel = Files()
excel.create_workbook("invoices.xlsx")
excel.append_rows_to_worksheet([["Invoice001", "2025-10-01", "$300"]])
excel.save_workbook()

⚙️ Step 3: Schedule in Control Room

Upload your bot to Control Room → Create a process → Set it to run daily → Monitor output and logs online.

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10. Why Developers Love Robocorp

• 🐍 Python-based: Build custom logic easily.
• 💸 Free & open-source: No license fees.
• 🧩 Modular libraries: Reusable across projects.
• ☁️ Cloud orchestration: Built-in scheduling and monitoring.
• 🧠 Integrates with AI: You can use Python ML/AI libraries for intelligent automation.

Robocorp bridges the gap between low-code RPA tools and true developer-grade automation frameworks.

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11. Comparing Robocorp with Traditional RPA Tools

Feature	Robocorp	UiPath	Blue Prism	Automation Anywhere
Language	Python	Visual	Visual	Visual
Pricing	Free / Open Source	Expensive	Enterprise only	Enterprise only
Flexibility	Very High	Medium	Low	Medium
Deployment	Cloud or Local	Cloud/On-Prem	On-Prem	Cloud
Custom Code	Full Python Support	Limited	None	Partial
Community	Growing Fast	Mature	Moderate	Moderate

Robocorp stands out because it gives developers full freedom and businesses a cost-effective path to automation.

12. Advanced Capabilities in Robocorp RPA

After building your first robot, you’ll quickly discover that Robocorp is not just about automating clicks and keystrokes. Its strength lies in deep Python integration and rich libraries that let you handle complex end-to-end processes.

12.1 Browser Automation with Playwright and Selenium

Robocorp supports both Playwright and Selenium for browser control.
Playwright is faster, headless-friendly, and works across Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit.
Example (Playwright):

from RPA.Browser.Playwright import Playwright

browser = Playwright()
browser.open_browser("https://example.com", headless=True)
browser.click("text=Login")
browser.fill_text("#username", "admin")
browser.fill_text("#password", "1234")
browser.click("button[type=submit]")
browser.screenshot("output/page.png")
browser.close_browser()

12.2 Working with Excel and Databases

Automation often involves manipulating spreadsheets or databases.

from RPA.Excel.Files import Files
from RPA.Database import Database

excel = Files()
excel.open_workbook("sales.xlsx")
data = excel.read_worksheet_as_table("Q1")
excel.close_workbook()

db = Database()
db.connect_to_database("sqlite", database="data.db")
for row in data:
    db.query("INSERT INTO sales VALUES (?, ?, ?)", tuple(row.values()))
db.disconnect_from_database()

12.3 PDF Processing and Document Automation

Using RPA.PDF, you can extract structured data from invoices, contracts, or reports.

from RPA.PDF import PDF

pdf = PDF()
content = pdf.get_text_from_pdf("invoice.pdf")
print(content)

Combine this with regular expressions or AI OCR (Tesseract, Azure Vision) for document understanding.

12.4 Email and API Automation

Bots can read emails, send notifications, or call REST APIs.

from RPA.Email.ImapSmtp import ImapSmtp
from RPA.HTTP import HTTP

email = ImapSmtp()
email.connect("imap.gmail.com", "user@gmail.com", "password")
messages = email.list_messages(criteria="UNSEEN")

api = HTTP()
for msg in messages:
    body = email.get_message_text(msg)
    api.post("https://api.company.com/tickets", json={"message": body})

12.5 Integrating AI and Machine Learning

Because Robocorp runs pure Python, you can import transformers, scikit-learn, OpenAI, or TensorFlow directly.
For example, sentiment analysis on incoming customer emails before routing them to agents.

from transformers import pipeline
sentiment = pipeline("sentiment-analysis")
result = sentiment("The delivery was late and support was unhelpful.")
print(result)

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13. Real-World Use Cases of Robocorp RPA

13.1 Finance and Accounting

• Invoice digitization and posting to ERP.
• Bank statement reconciliation.
• Automated expense approvals.

13.2 Human Resources and Payroll

• Onboarding employees by creating accounts and sending welcome emails.
• Generating monthly payslips from HR databases.
• Updating compliance forms and tracking training completion.

13.3 Healthcare and Insurance

• Extracting patient data from forms and uploading to EHR systems.
• Automating claims validation.
• Scheduling appointment reminders via email or SMS.

13.4 Customer Support Automation

• Reading incoming emails and auto-creating tickets in Zendesk or Freshdesk.
• Summarizing ticket content using AI and tagging priority levels.

13.5 IT and Operations

• Monitoring server logs and creating alerts.
• Resetting passwords or creating user accounts via API calls.
• Regular back-ups and system health reports.

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14. Best Practices for Developing Robocorp RPA Bots

14.1 Write Reusable Code

Organize your robots into modules and libraries.
Example structure:

automation_suite/
 ├─ tasks/
 │   ├─ invoices.robot
 │   ├─ payroll.robot
 ├─ libraries/
 │   ├─ email_utils.py
 │   ├─ pdf_utils.py
 └─ resources/
     ├─ variables.yaml

14.2 Use Version Control

Integrate Git and GitHub or GitLab for tracking changes and collaboration.
Each robot should have its own repository and CI/CD workflow.

14.3 Credentials and Security

Never hard-code passwords. Use Control Room’s Vault or environment variables.
Encrypt sensitive files and audit access regularly.

14.4 Error Handling and Logging

Every bot should log its actions and recover from failures.

try:
    run_main_process()
except Exception as e:
    logger.error(f"Process failed: {e}")
    send_alert_email(str(e))

14.5 Testing and Debugging

• Use unit tests for Python components.
• Run robots locally before uploading to Control Room.
• Review output/log.html for detailed traces.

14.6 Scalability and Performance

Schedule robots in parallel or on multiple workers to handle large volumes.
Leverage Robocorp’s API to trigger bots on events rather than timers.

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15. Challenges When Starting with Robocorp RPA

1. Learning curve: Requires basic Python knowledge.
2. UI changes: Bots can break if web elements change frequently.
3. Process selection: Not every task is worth automating — focus on rule-based, repetitive ones.
4. Maintenance: Bots need monitoring and updates as business rules evolve.

Overcoming these challenges means building a culture of continuous automation and documentation.

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16. Future of Robocorp and the RPA Industry

16.1 The Rise of Hyperautomation

RPA is no longer limited to rule-based tasks. The new wave — Hyperautomation — combines RPA with AI, machine learning, process mining, and analytics.

16.2 Robocorp’s AI Vision

Robocorp is working toward integrating AI assistants that help bots make decisions autonomously (e.g., classifying emails, understanding documents, detecting anomalies).

16.3 Open Source as the Standard

As enterprises seek transparency and cost control, open-source RPA like Robocorp will become mainstream. It gives developers freedom and companies ownership of their code.

16.4 Integration with Low-Code Platforms

Expect hybrid environments — business users create workflows visually while developers extend them in Python for complex logic.

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17. Educational Path for Learners and Teams

1. Start with Python fundamentals (variables, loops, modules).
2. Learn Robot Framework syntax for readable task files.
3. Explore RPA Framework libraries — Excel, Browser, PDF, Email.
4. Practice building robots locally and uploading to Control Room.
5. Join the Robocorp Community Forum for support and projects.

Certifications like Robocorp Developer Level I and II can help validate skills professionally.

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18. How Businesses Can Adopt Robocorp Strategically

1. Identify process candidates: Look for high-volume, repetitive tasks.
2. Start small: Build a pilot automation to prove ROI.
3. Train staff: Empower developers with Python and RPA knowledge.
4. Scale gradually: Deploy Control Room and introduce governance.
5. Measure impact: Track time saved, error reduction, and cost efficiency.

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19. Why Open-Source RPA Is the Future

• Transparency: You own the code and data.
• Cost Efficiency: No per-bot licenses.
• Community Support: Continuous innovation through open libraries.
• Integration: Easily connect to modern AI and API services.

Robocorp proves that automation can be both powerful and accessible.

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20. Conclusion: Empowering the Next Generation of Digital Workers

Robocorp represents the future of automation — an ecosystem where developers, business leaders, and students collaborate to build a digital workforce.
By combining Python’s flexibility, open-source philosophy, and cloud orchestration, Robocorp enables organizations to create smart bots that scale with their growth.

Whether you’re a developer seeking technical depth, a manager seeking ROI, or a student exploring automation careers — Robocorp RPA is your gateway to the automation revolution.

“The real power of RPA is not replacing humans — it’s freeing them to focus on what humans do best: thinking, creating, and innovating.”

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📚 Recommended Resources

• robocorp.com/docs — Official documentation
• RPA Framework GitHub — Library source code
• Robocorp Community Forum
• Robot Framework User Guide