VietNamNet Bridge – While manufacturers in the world have gone far in the robot industry, Vietnam-made robots still cannot go beyond the laboratories.

Nowadays in the world, robots have been used more and more popularly in every field of the society’s life, in both industrial production and housework. Especially, scientists in the world tend to use robots to replace human in working in hazardous environments.

In Vietnam, scientists and businesses have also joined forces to manufacture robots. A lot of individuals and companies have announced that they have succeeded in manufacturing robots. However, to date, Vietnam-made robots just have been hanging around the laboratories. What to do to develop the robot manufacturing industry?

Part 1. Robots used in Vietnam are mostly foreign made

Tran Cong Tam, Director of HCM City-based Sun Company, which specializes in importing robots to distribute in the domestic market, said that he has been going to many countries in the world over the last six years to seek to purchase robots.

The demand for robots in Vietnam has been increasing, because Vietnamese have been aware of the importance of robots in their lives: robots can help save money, improve the quality of products and productivity. Especially, robots can work in the special environments which cannot be done by human.

Tam has to travel abroad to buy robots, because he cannot buy made-in-Vietnam robots. “I know that some individuals and institutions say they can manufacture robots. But I think that the products are just made to serve their works only, while the products have not been commercialized yet,” Tam said.

Now in Vietnam the robots working as welding workers are the most wanted. Other kinds of robots, such as the ones to pick up products, or the ones used in pharmacy industry, which have been available in Vietnam, are all imports and they have not been used widely.

Sun Company imports some 10 robots every year. The company imports robots, and then designs software to provide to clients to their orders. A robot is priced at 20,000 dollars, while an associated solution is cost up to 20,000 dollars.

In fact, Tam many times tried to contact some schools and learn about their research and development works, hoping to find domestically made products. However, he has not found.

Vietnam organizes Robocon, a competition of robots, every year. And schools every year make robots themselves to attend the competition. However, the “soul” of the robots still needs to be imported from foreign countries. A lot of research centers can make robots themselves, but they cannot make robots in masses. Their robots just hang around the laboratories while have not been put into industrial production.

The problem, according to Tam, is that though Vietnamese inventors have good ideas, they cannot develop the ideas and commercialize the products, because they cannot find supporters. In Vietnam, it is very difficult to find the businesses which are ready to spend money to develop products.

“I do not think that Vietnam can manufacture robots in industrial scale. There are too many problems existing,” he said. “Vietnamese people’s intelligence is in no way inferior to foreigners, but Vietnam will not succeed, if it only has brainpower.”

Van Duc Muoi, General Director of Vissan, a food processing company, has affirmed that the demand for robots is now very high, but domestic enterprises still cannot meet the demand.

Vissan itself, for example, once contacted some domestic mechanical engineering companies to place orders. However, Muoi said, none of them could meet the requirements set up by the company. As a result, the company has to use foreign technologies, even though the prices are high.

Source: SGTT