Students test Mars robots

Industrial engineering students at the University of Iowa are learning –through the eyes of robots — what it may be like to explore other planets.U-of-I students in what’s called the GROK (rhymes with rock) Lab aredesigning software that helps geologists communicate with far-away rovingrobots & vice-versa. GROK stands for Graphical Representation of Knowledge.For practice, the nimble little devices are being placed in remote areas,from a sandy desert in Chile or Utah to the snowy plains of Antarctica.U-of-I industrial engineering professor Geb Thomas says about a dozen U-of-Istudents from the GROK Lab recently took a robot to Utah to try out theirown theories.Thomas says his current students may someday be the ones helping steer themulti-million dollar research robots on the Red Planet 43-million milesaway.