Control and Monitoring of Software Robots: What Can Academia and Industry Learn from Each Other?

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has witnessed significant growth, becoming widely adopted in practice. This surge in the use of RPA technology has given rise to new challenges, particularly concerning the effective control and monitoring of software robots. Ideally, academia and industry would work together on developing new RPA capabilities, but both domains operate rather separately. In this paper, we employ an explorative approach to examine how academic theories can improve industrial RPA practices and vice versa. By analyzing both academic literature and leading RPA platforms, we present four recommendations for academia, four for industry, and a general recommendation aiming to advance the collaboration between them.