FPT Software and Softbank to apply robot in teaching English in Vietnam

At the workshop named “SoftBank Smart Robotics – Future in the eyes” by Softbank on the afternoon of August 26 at Ha Noi, FPT Software signed the cooperation agreement with SoftBank and Institute of American Education - IAE in order to apply robot named NAO in teaching English in Vietnam.

Reportedly, the robot will help teachers in the two units – the Institute of English EQuest and Vietnamese American English Center (VATC).

The representatives of FPT Software and Softbank singed the cooperation agreement.

According to Mr. Le Ngoc Tuan, Director of Robot and IoT team, the team of experienced experts has studied and successfully developed APIs for generations of robots including NAO.

Robot market has long been considered as a potential field, with many applications in the life of society as well as the industries – producers with an estimated value up to billions of dollars. Previously, Robot was applied only in the industrial sectors. However, in the period 2014 to 2019, the market for consumer and office robots is expected to increase by 17%. This is 7 times more rapid than the market for industrial robots.

In Vietnam, the number of new Robot application areas is only a modest level, mainly for research, and application of a small part of the industry. It is also the first robot applied in the field of education.

Currently, over 9.000 robot generations are sold and used in the world. "Despite a late start, Vietnam will have tremendous growth to catch up with other countries in the region such as Singapore, Korea ... in the field of robotics in the next 10 years," said CEO of Softbank Telecom Vietnam Takashi Morimoto.

"Robocon teams of Vietnam have became the winner at five out of 14 Robocon seasons, while SMAC Challenge by FPT has always attracts the attention of IT students in Hanoi and HCM City. This is a good sign, indicating that Vietnamese developers programming robot applications are ready for technology transfer”, stated CTO of FPT Software Tran Huy Bao Giang.

In Viet Nam, every NAO robot is sold with the price of USD 10.000 and it can develop according to different demands and purposes of customers. The robot NAO is equipped four sensor areas and it is the ability to identify voice, image, emotion and it can copy human’s behavior. The robot is also equipped Internet connection and speaking 19 different languages. The representative of SoftBank also reveals that they will continue introducing robot PEPPER to the Vietnam market.

At the event, FPT experts presented OpenFPT and NAO Platform as implementers. The guests joined exchanges and programmed 6 NAO robots to experience their interactive capabilities. The workshop also solved the concerns about the world robotics market, as well as the development of AI, solutions and robot applications in training in Vietnam.