Robotic process automation (RPA) is an emerging technology that allows organizations automating repetitive clerical tasks by executing scripts that encode sequences of fine-grained interactions with Web and desktop applications. Examples of clerical tasks include opening a file, selecting a field in a Web form or a cell in a spreadsheet, and copy-pasting data across fields or cells. Given that RPA can automate a wide range of routines, this raises the question of which routines should be automated in the first place. This paper presents a vision towards a family of techniques, termed robotic process mining (RPM), aimed at filling this gap. The core idea of RPM is that repetitive routines amenable for automation can be discovered from logs of interactions between workers and Web and desktop applications, also known as user interactions (UI) logs. The paper defines a set of basic concepts underpinning RPM and presents a pipeline of processing steps that would allow an RPM tool to generate RPA scripts from UI logs. The paper also discusses research challenges to realize the envisioned pipeline.

中文翻译：

---

机器人过程挖掘：愿景和挑战

机器人流程自动化 (RPA) 是一种新兴技术，它允许组织通过执行脚本来自动执行重复的文书任务，这些脚本对与 Web 和桌面应用程序的细粒度交互序列进行编码。文书任务的示例包括打开文件、选择 Web 表单中的字段或电子表格中的单元格以及跨字段或单元格复制粘贴数据。鉴于 RPA 可以自动化广泛的例程，这就提出了首先应该自动化哪些例程的问题。本文提出了一系列技术的愿景，称为机器人过程挖掘 (RPM)，旨在填补这一空白。RPM 的核心思想是，可以从工作人员与 Web 和桌面应用程序之间的交互日志（也称为用户交互 (UI) 日志）中发现适合自动化的重复例程。本文定义了一组支持 RPM 的基本概念，并提出了一系列处理步骤，允许 RPM 工具从 UI 日志生成 RPA 脚本。该论文还讨论了实现设想的管道的研究挑战。