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A robot that can print itself new 'body' parts and adapt to environments has been made.

In a video, the machine is shown struggling - but succeeding - to crawl along the ground after having one of its four limbs removed.

And it could herald future robots that can learn how to overcome difficult conditions on other worlds like Mars.

Scientists at University of Oslo have created robots that learn to adapt. The multi-limbed machines can overcome environmental challenges. In a video a robot with a limb removed learns how to walk (shown)

The robots were created by a team of scientists from the University of Oslo.

To make them a 3D printer is fed a list of parameters for the robots including desired speed, size and efficiency.

A simulator then pits several different creations in 'fights to the death' before the winning robot is sent to the 3D printer for production.

The robot was then 'taught' that it was missing a limb and told to try and walk across the floor.

In the video it can be seen how the robot adapts to its situation, and still manages to 'walk' or rawl across the floor.

The 3D printers used by the university cost up to £280,000 ($430,000) and are capable of an extremely high level of precision.

Using 3D printers to print out self-learning robots

The robots were created by a team of scientists from the University of Oslo. To make them a 3D printer is fed a list of parameters for the robots including desired speed, size and efficiencies. A simulator then pits several different creations with different limbs and features in 'fights to the death' before selecting a winner

According to IEEE Spectrum, the potential benefits of such a robot are numerous. 

For example, a Mars rover equipped with a 3D printer could autonomously get itself out of sticky situations.

'In the future, robots must be able to solve tasks in deep mines on distant planets, in radioactive disaster areas, in hazardous landslip areas and on the sea bed beneath the Antarctic,' said Professor Kyrre Glette, from the Robotics and Intelligent Systems research group.

'These environments are so extreme that no human being can cope. Everything needs to be automatically controlled.

'Imagine that the robot is entering the wreckage of a nuclear power plant. It finds a staircase that no-one has thought of.

'The robot takes a picture. The picture is analysed. The arms of one of the robots is fitted with a printer.

'This produces a new robot, or a new part for the existing robot, which enables it to negotiate the stairs.'

The research team (shown with some of the robots) say that the technique of autonomously creating parts could be used by future robots on other planets in the solar system