VietNamNet Bridge – While other countries in the world have made a big leap in the development of robot industry, Vietnam still has not been ready yet enough to develop the modern industry.

Part 2: Contriving to rescue made-in-Vietnam robots

When will the “made-in-Vietnam robot” dream come true?

In the world, robots are considered the savior

Since 1960, when industrial robots appeared in the US, they have been playing an increasingly big role in the manufacturing fields. President of Fanuc America, R.Shneider, also said that one should think about industrial robots as a strategic business tool – the tool that helps build up the competitiveness in the global economy.

In the 21st century, the investment rate on industrial robots in the world decreased by 30 percent, but the investment on service robots increased. This explains why service robots have been developing very rapidly, which have been utilized in many fields of the society, in people’s life and national defense. Unmanned aircraft, machines used in surveillance activities and combat are also considered a kind of service robot.

The key matter for the development of diversified service robots is the achievement on smart robot.

South Korea affirms that smart robot can become the main engine for the country development, believing that by 2020 the industries can bring the turnover of nearly 100 billion dollars. South Korea plans to hold 15 percent of the smart robot market share in the world by 2013, while the exports may bring the turnover of 20 billion dollars and producers in the industries can create 100,000 jobs.

The important role of robots has been recognized at many international forums. Some scientists have even said that robot can serve as the savior in the process of the speeding up globalization process. Nowadays, robot not only helps save the labor cost, but also can serve as the effective tool to obtain victory in the stiff competition in the world market.

It is clear that robot is turning into the nucleus for the development of modern industry. The characteristic of modern industries is to become more flexible to get adapted to the regular changes in a competitive market.

It is expected that in 2009-2012, some 49,000 new service robots would be installed, especially the robots serving in national defense, security, agriculture, forwarding, healthcare and some others.

In Vietnam, robot industry still hindered by “administrative robot”

In fact, a lot of Vietnamese universities and research institute have accessed the issues on robot science and technology very soon. There have been a lot of research works on robot development. However, the problem is that the research works remain still in laboratories.

Vietnam, together with Japan, South Korea and China, has been mentioned regularly when talking about the activities of Robotics Asia. Vietnamese students have also been succeeding in Robocon, the robot competition in Asia Pacific. The robot products manufactured by TOSY, whose general director was once the head of the Robocon team in 2003, attended a lot of exhibitions in Japan and Germany. Especially, the products have been highly valuated in the world.

However, it is clear that the robot industry in Vietnam has not been paid appropriate attention which explains why no considerable progress has been made in the industry. The “Ask-and-grant” mechanism in project licensing has hindered the development of a lot of good ideas.

A lot of conclusions of scientific council on research works and a lot of proposals of scientists relating to the issue have not received replies. Especially, the detailed suggestions on the robot development strategy have never got appropriate attention.

Meanwhile, the demand for robots has been increasing rapidly in recent years. According to a joint venture in Vietnam, the automobile and motorbike industries, for example, now use 219 robots, and they need up to 600 in the near future.

Source: SGTT