What do robots dream of?

Reading a Perspective article in Science, or actually reading a Letter responding to the article, brought to my attention once again the research on robot cognition and self-awareness. How can robots be programmed to learn independently? And can they be modeled by our knowledge of human learning?
The article 'Resilient Machines Through Continuous Self-Modeling' describes how a robot can model its own gait, and if it is injured by i.e. removing part of a limb, it can think up new ways of walking by a dream-like process. In the 'dream' it revisits its past experiences and recombines the knowledge to try out new solutions to the problem.

Reading:
'Resilient Machines Through Continuous Self-Modeling', Science Nov 2006
What do robots dream of?, Perspective article in Science Nov 2006
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick