Krafton's robotics research subsidiary, Ludo Robotics, unveiled its robot AI system 'Ludi 0.2' at the 2026 Bay Area Robotics Symposium (BARS) held at UC Berkeley on the 30th of last month (local time). Ludi 0.2 is a robot AI equipped with social intelligence focused on communicating and cooperating with humans, serving as the successor to 'Ludi 0.1' revealed last August. The presentation was led by Lee Kang-wook, Krafton Chief AI Officer (CAIO) and Ludo Robotics Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

Ludo Robotics focuses on the social intelligence of robots, researching AI technology for robots that understand human intent, adapt to changing environments, and cooperate naturally. Ludi 0.2 has improved its ability to understand human intent and react according to situational changes. The previously introduced Ludi 0.1 was an AI system integrating mobility and object manipulation functions into a Vision-Language Model (VLM) responsible for dialogue and reasoning, featuring capabilities to understand voice commands, maintain conversation context, and clarify ambiguous instructions with follow-up questions. Furthermore, it was designed to respond flexibly even if tasks change within a set environment. For example, if a robot is fulfilling a request to fetch a drink and receives a command to switch to a different beverage, it immediately stops the action and picks up and delivers the new drink.

Building on these features of Ludi 0.1, Ludi 0.2 has advanced several functions to allow robots to interact more smoothly with humans. Specifically, it has strengthened 'social intelligence' to react to human intent, feedback, and social signals; 'memory and reasoning' to maintain context and judge within changing tasks and situations; 'integration of tool manipulation' to organically connect mobility, object manipulation, and interaction functions; 'gesture understanding' to recognize and react to human gestures; and 'physical movement' to move smoothly and flexibly in set environments.

Ludo Robotics is also pushing forward with the development of the next-generation foundation model, 'Ludi 1.0'. Ludi 1.0 aims to integrate environmental perception, conversation, and physical action into a single model, focusing on enabling robots to share task understanding with humans while communicating and acting in real-time. Kim Chang-han, Krafton CEO and Ludo Robotics Chief Executive Officer (CEO), stated, "For about 20 years, Krafton has implemented virtual worlds that interact in real-time through games. Based on this experience, we will create AI for robots that naturally communicate and cooperate with humans in reality."

Meanwhile, Ludo Robotics has officially opened its research institute in Palo Alto, California, USA. The Palo Alto lab serves as the headquarters research base for Ludo Robotics, conducting AI and robotics research in connection with the Seoul office. Ludo Robotics plans to expand exchanges with Silicon Valley's talent and technology ecosystem moving forward.