Researchers at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, UK have created a robot that adapts to such changes by mimicking biological evolution, using an incremental evolutionary algorithm (IEA) capable of adding new parts to its robot brain over time.

The robot is controlled by a neural network that can be trained. For example, if the goal is to remain balanced and the robot receives inputs from sensors that it is tipping over, it will move its limbs in an attempt to right itself. Such actions are shaped by adjusting the importance, or weighting, of the input signals to each node.