Krafton moves into robotics with Ludo Robotics AI research

Krafton, the South Korean developer behind the game PUBG: Battlegrounds, is expanding its artificial intelligence research into the field of humanoid robotics. Through its Palo Alto-based subsidiary, Ludo Robotics, the company is developing software designed to help robots interpret complex human instructions and adapt to unpredictable physical environments.

Ludo Robotics recently introduced Ludi 0.2, an experimental intelligence system that combines vision-language models with specialized robotics foundation models, such as Nvidia’s GR00T. The software is currently designed to run on third-party hardware, with the research team focusing on improving the machine’s conversational memory and gesture recognition.

According to CEO CH Kim, Krafton’s two decades of experience creating NPC teammates for virtual worlds provides a foundation for the company’s approach to robotics. By using game engines to simulate interactions and generate synthetic training data, the company aims to overcome the challenge of teaching robots how to generalize their behavior across different physical settings.

Unlike companies focusing on the manufacturing of hardware, Krafton intends to specialize in the development of the AI brains for these machines. The company has designated the research phase for 2024 and 2025, with internal goals of identifying viable environments for real-world deployment by 2027.