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The ideal vacuum cleaner would be one you never see. It needs to not just be a cool gadget, but a product that cleans your floor correctly. I can imagine people having a cupboard full of robots that only come out when you need them to fulfil a specific purpose.

If robots are to clean our homes, they'll have to do it better than a person.

It's hard not to love Roomba. Roomba had such an amazing impact on the field. When we launched, we asked people, 'Is it a robot?' and got an overwhelming no - 'robots' have arms and legs; they command data. There was a very strong perception that robots had to look like people.

I would love to have a robot at home.

We should get a Roomba for our Roomba. I feel bad for it because it works tirelessly, and at night I can hear it cleaning, and I just feel bad for it.

Building robot versions of people is very expensive.

Robots already perform many functions, from making cars to defusing bombs - or, more menacingly, firing missiles. Children and adults play with toy robots, while vacuum-cleaning robots are sucking up dirt in a growing number of homes and - as evidenced by YouTube videos - entertaining cats.

The benefits of having robots could vastly outweigh the problems.

Building a robot that has legs and walks around is a very expensive proposition. Mother Nature has created many wonderful things, but one thing we do have that nature doesn't is the wheel, a continuous rotating joint, and tracks, so we need to make use of inventions to make things simpler.

The last thing I want my robot to be is sarcastic. I want them to be pragmatic and reliable - just like my dishwasher.