This paper presents the system design and implementation of ‘Mon-e’, the KT’s edutainment robot for young children. We paid our special attention to the computer- illiterate young children, and the provision of the physical and friendly human interface of robots. Specifically, the paper focuses on the video telephony and home monitoring service using the Mon-e robot. RFID cards –based calling makes it possible for the computer-illiterate children to make a phone call to their parents. The SIP and DTMF based remote control of the robot enables the search and track of the children. This experimental development shows the potentialities and values of the convergence service of telecommunication and robotics

This paper presents the sound-based emotion estimation method and the growing HRI (human-robot interaction) system for a Mon-E robot. The method of emotion estimation uses the musical element based on the law of harmony and counterpoint. The emotion is estimated from sound using the information of musical elements which include chord, tempo, volume, harmonic and compass. In this paper, the estimated emotions display the standard 12 emotions including Eckman’s 6 emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise) and the opposite 6 emotions (calmness, love, confidence, unhappiness, gladness, comfortableness) of those. The growing HRI system analyzes sensing information, estimated emotion and service log in an edutainment robot. So, it commands the behavior of the robot. The growing HRI system consists of the emotion client and the emotion server. The emotion client estimates the emotion from sound. This client not only transmits the estimated emotion and sensing information to the emotion server but also delivers response coming from the emotion server to the main program of the robot. The emotion server not only updates the rule table of HRI using information transmitted from the emotion client and but also transmits the response of the HRI to the emotion client. The proposed system was applied to a Mon-E robot and can supply friendly HRI service to users.