The difference between RPA and RDA is that the RDA is an automation solution that assists the agent in handling simple repetitive tasks. The agent plays a role in facilitating when the automation is triggered and stopped depending on their work flow.
An example of that would be an agent receives a call and needs to retrieve all necessary info related to the customer that is calling. Instead of the agent manually retrieving the data from various applications, the RDA assists in gathering this information in parallel to the agent speaking with customer.
The agent is the one that determines when the data is retrieved and what particular information is gathered by providing an account number to the RDA to assist with.
The RPA is a headless operation in comparison. There are no agents to instruct the robot when to collect the information. There are no users interacting with the robot. The design of the automation is totally self-sustaining.
Suppose you have a massive amount of records that require updating, but the record access is mutually exclusive. Mutual exclusion meaning only one agent can access the record at a time. You wouldn't want to update these records in the middle of a work period, because that would disrupt the call flow of the agents and it would not prove helpful if the account record was already in use by one of the human agents.
Instead, you would create a headless (no user interaction) automation to update the records during off peak hours, i.e. (2 AM in the morning). This headless automation could be started with the use of the Windows Scheduler that starts the Robot at a specific time every night, or every 1st and 2nd Tuesday of the month which ever you prefer. The Robot would start from the task scheduler and perform the necessary updates while the agents are not accessing the records. This headless operation is called an RPA.
Both RDA and RPA are solution automations, but designed with two different task in mind.

You can use Robotic Process Automations (RPA) to automate repetitive and unattended back-office activities directly from your Pega® Platform application. You can batch process large volumes of cases faster and with fewer errors compared with manual handling.

For example, you can queue an automation to process one or more stages of an automobile insurance claim. After a claim is submitted, the claim can immediately be routed to a robotic automation virtual machine (VM). The VM runs an automation that analyzes the information submitted with the claim, looks up and verifies policy holder information, and updates web and desktop applications with case information.

When you implement automations with your case type, case assignments are first routed to robotic automation work queues. A VM retrieves the assignment from the queue, obtains the case data associated with the assignment, and performs the specified automation. After it processes the assignment, any modified data is sent back to the case, and the VM retrieves the next assignment to process.

You can use Robotic Process Automation (RPA) automations to automate repetitive and unattended back-office activities directly from your Pega Platform application. Using process automations can help you to process large volumes of cases in batches faster and with fewer errors compared to manual handling.
For example, you can queue an automation to process one or more stages of an automobile insurance claim. After a claim is submitted, the claim can immediately be routed to a robotic automation virtual machine (VM). The robotic automation VM runs an automation that analyzes the information submitted with the claim, looks up and verifies policy holder information, and updates web and desktop applications with case information.
When you use automations with your case type, case assignments are first routed to robotic work queues. A VM retrieves the assignment from the queue, obtains the case data associated with the assignment, and performs the specified automation. After it processes the assignment, any modified data is sent back to the case, and the robotic automation VM retrieves the next assignment to process.

​Any information that you want to share between your Pega Platform application and the automation must be marked as relevant records.

With Robotic Desktop Automation (RDA), you can use robotic automations, which are configured in Pega Robotics Automation Studio, to automate and integrate processes on the desktop. Automating repetitive tasks reduces errors and frees your staff to focus on higher-value, customer-oriented tasks. For example, you can:

• Synchronize all your desktop applications with a customer's account information.
• Automatically launch or close applications on the desktop.
• Send updated customer account information from your Pega 7 application to one or more web or desktop applications.
• Streamline users' workspaces. By automating communication among various desktop applications, users do not need to switch among many applications to update information.

For example, customers can submit a request to change their account information in your application. An automation can retrieve customer account information from a legacy application that is running on a case worker's desktop and display it in an application form. Another automation can send the updated account information from your application to the legacy application.
You can configure an automation to run on a flow action on a flow in your case type, or from a modal dialog box or overlay anywhere in your application.

PrerequisitesBefore you begin, ensure that the following tasks have been completed:

• Install and configure Pega Robotics Automation Studio and Pega Robotics Automation Runtime. 
• Automations have been created in Pega Robotics Studio.

There are Two Type of  installation options available:

• Run time only installation
• Pega Robotic Studio installation

The runtime client allows the users to run automations on a user’s desktop. The automation project can be loaded after launching the run time client and right clicking the run time icon in the task bar. During installation of the client enable RDA checkbox needs to be checked in order to enable the REST service (API) for handling automation requests from Pega 7 applications.

Pega Robotic Studio is built on top of Visual Studio. Robotic Studio is used for creating automations. The installation files and instructions can be found in Pega Robotic Automation Architect Essentials (8.0) course in Pega academy. The course also provides a sample application and step by step instructions on how to create an automation. Automations can also be invoked from a Pega application by running the debugger in robotic studio.
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Both runtime and Robotic Studio have configuration files which need to be updated with Pega server base URL. At runtime, Config files are copied to the temp folder under C:/user/AppData/Roaming/OpenSpan. The files need to be updated or deleted from this folder every time the Config files are updated in order to pick up latest Config changes.

Robotic automations can be used to automate the routine tasks which are repeated in a workflow. Pega robotics adds the ability to automate tasks using the user interface of existing applications. It can help speed up manual tasks by automating user actions.

Automations are created in Pega Robotic Studio. The latest version available is 8.0 and can be downloaded from PDN. The minimum requirements for running automations are PRPC 7.2.1 with Pega HFIX-29471 or PRPC 7.2.2.
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There are two types of Pega robotic automations:

Pega Desktop Automation
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Desktop automations are used to provide a unified desktop experience to users by integrating and automating desktop (or web applications) with Pega 7 applications. Desktop or web applications can be launched from flow actions and data can be transferred back and forth between the workflow and desktop applications.
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Desktop automations can help reduce the redundant work that is required to copy and duplicate data in multiple applications. This can help reduce the time a CRM representative needs to spend with a customer on the phone and can also reduce data entry errors which can occur when entering the same data multiple times.

Legacy applications where APIs don’t exist or are not compatible with new Pega 7 applications can be integrated with the help of automations.

Pega Process Automation

Process automations are used for automating high-volume back-end repetitive work. Case assignments are routed to a robotic queue from where they are picked up by a robotic automation VM to perform the automations.
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The working is similar to an agent but the processing is done by an automation instead of the Pega requestor processing the assignment. A new ‘type’ dropdown has been added in the work basket instance to specify a robotic automation work queue. If Robotic type is selected from the dropdown, two additional fields are displayed:

1. Maximum queue length: This value is used to specify the maximum number of assignments that should be in the queue at a given time.
2. Maximum automation execution time: The value is used to specify the maximum amount of time the VM is expected to take to run the automation.

Automation VM’s can be managed in Pega Robotic Automation Console. Robotic workbasket turns red when the number of assignments exceed the maximum queue length or the automation execution time. The automation console is packaged with a sample application and can be downloaded from the PDN link.

You can use Robotic Process Automation (RPA) automations to automate repetitive and unattended back-office activities directly from your Pega 7 application. Using process automations can help you to process large volumes of cases in batches faster and with fewer errors compared to manual handling.
For example, you can queue an automation to process one or more stages of an automobile insurance claim. After a claim is submitted, the claim can immediately be routed to a robotic automation virtual machine (VM). The robotic automation VM runs an automation that analyzes the information submitted with the claim, looks up and verifies policy holder information, and updates web and desktop applications with case information.
When you use automations with your case type, case assignments are first routed to robotic work queues. A robotic automation VM retrieves the assignment from the queue, obtains the case data associated with the assignment, and performs the specified automation. After it processes the assignment, any modified data is sent back to the case, and the robotic automation VM retrieves the next assignment to process.
Any information that you want to share between your Pega 7 application and the automation must be marked as relevant records.

Pega Robotic Process Automation (RPA), organizations can automate the tedious manual work that is hampering productivity and efficiency. Whether adjudicating claims, onboarding customers or employees, reconciling financials, or updating customer information in systems record your business can utilize Pega RPA to optimize processes across your enterprise.