How did you get into computers? I was a founder member of the computer club at school, when I was 11 or 12. We got this Olivetti that looked like a glorified cash register, with paper printer output. When you took the back off, it was stuffed full of transistors on racks and racks of PCBs (printed circuit boards). The other machine that really stuck in my mind was when the school took delivery of a Research Machines 380Z. Remember writing programs in Tiny Basic? I've always been interested in the use of computers and in the 90s, designing Formula 1 cars, I pushed very hard on using them for vehicle simulation.
Did you work with Schumacher at Benetton? I became chief designer after Schumi had left: I worked with Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi, then Fisichella and Wurz. Before Benetton, I'd set up my own F1 team, Simtec, in 1993-94. I was the youngest F1 team owner. There weren't enough places on the grid so it always ended up in a shoot-out, but we never missed. Some of the key people from Simtec have worked on the RoboDog team at RoboScience.
Why go from wheels to legs? The simple fact is that we're not going to adapt our environment to robots: they're going to have to adapt to us. The most suitable design for working in our environment is a legged robot. The RoboDog is just a technology demonstrator. We said: "Let's show the world what we've done by building a large robot dog." We figured we didn't want anything too scary, like a giant crab. But my interest in robotics stemmed from my childhood. I remember, like many of my contemporaries, staring in wonder at the robots in Star Wars.
When did you start using the internet? I've been using it a long time, but in an academic sort of way. But the internet has been absolutely key to this project. The development has been done by a virtual team: we are dotted all over the place, and we have communicated over the internet. In the old days, you had to be all together to share the technical library. Now I have the biggest reference library in the world, and it is the world at the end of a modem. I've got a two-channel ISDN line at home and a trillion Acrobat files. It's just fantastic. You still have to have the team and talent, but the resources are amazing.
What are your favourite sites? I use the web really just for technology news, except when I'm in full design mode. I use ABC and CNN. I'm a big movie fan, so I look at IGN Film Force which has a really nice format, and www.avscience.com. I like to keep up with motor racing so I go to Autosport and F1 Live. The other great technical resource that I love is Moreover, because it's so bloody useful.
• Interviewed by Jack Schofield
