Final Paper Submission Instructions

The ICRA 2024 conference committee would like to congratulate all authors for submitting excellent work. Please read the following instructions carefully.

Submission of your final paper and peer-reviewed video to PaperPlaza

All authors will need to submit their final paper between 7th February – 6th March 2024 via their PaperPlaza account. For further instruction on how to do this, please click on the

‘Final Paper Submission Instructions – Contributed ICRA Papers’ OR
‘Final Submission Instructions – RA-L, T-RO, T-ASE, and RAM Papers’ tab below.

If your accepted paper was accompanied by a short video in the original submission, then you may also upload that peer-reviewed video in your final submission.

STEP

Submission of your presentation materials to InfoVaya

All presenters at ICRA 2024 (including RA-L, T-RO, T-ASE, and RAM presenters, ICRA award finalists, ICRA paper presenters) are required to upload the following materials on our InfoVaya platform, which is being used for the conference app. Instructions on how to access the platform can be found in the instruction tabs below.

The platform will open for uploads on the 1st April and will close on the 12th April.

Presentation Video – 1st April – 12th April. All presenters are required to prepare a 7-minute video, describing the main contribution of their work.
Graphical Abstract – 1st April – 12th April. All presenters must produce a graphical abstract which provides a concise visual summary of the findings of your paper, to be used as a ‘paper at a glance’. The graphical abstract image is used in the conference app on InfoVaya as a thumbnail image for your paper (similar to a Youtube thumbnail image). We recommend including your paper title, author list and then any key images relating to your paper.

Authors of poster presentations are also required to upload a digital version of their final poster. The InfoVaya platform will open for uploads on the 1st April and will close on the 12th April.

For more information and instructions on how to upload each of these elements, please click on the tabs below.

STEP

Author Registration

Robotics and Automation Society and ICRA conference policy requires that at least one author of your paper is registered for the conference prior to final paper upload. All presenting authors must be registered by the 6th March. For more information on registration please click here . At least one author must register the conference for the paper to be included in the final program.

Important message for authors who require a cc by license (such as researchers funded by UKRI)

Please note that some authors (such as those funded by UKRI) require a cc by open access licence for their papers. If you require a CC BY licence for your paper, please follow the guidelines described under option 2 on the following website: https://open.ieee.org/ieee-compliance-with-ukri/

Final Paper Submission Instructions – Contributed ICRA Papers

The final version of your paper must be submitted on PaperPlaza between 7th February – 6th March 2024 (23:59 PST).

The reviews and the associate editor remarks can be found via your PaperPlaza account. Please take these comments and suggestions into account when preparing the final version of your paper.

Please ensure that the PaperPlaza metadata such as title, abstract and author list is correct since this information is included in the program.

Please recall the commitment statement you provided when submitting your paper: “the final version is expected to correspond in length and contents to your accepted submission, except for parts that might be added or modified to address the reviewers’ comments. It is considered unethical to shorten or otherwise alter the final version in ways that make it significantly different than what was reviewed and accepted.”

Page Length – Papers appearing in the ICRA proceedings

Your final submission must also comply with the (6+n) paper length (i.e. six pages of technical content (including text, figures, tables, acknowledgement, etc.) with no page-limit for the bibliography/references (n pages). (6+n) pages compliance in the final version will be MANUALLY CHECKED after 6th March 2024, PaperPlaza does not have the capability to automatically check this compliance, when you submit your final paper.

Any final paper submitted by the final submission deadline that does not comply with the (6+n) pages requirement will be SUMMARILY REJECTED and REMOVED from the conference proceedings. Authors will not have an opportunity to fix the non-compliance, given the short time frame between final submission deadline, manual (6+n) pages compliance check of the final papers, and conference publication deadlines.

Video for Accepted Papers

If your accepted paper was accompanied by a short video in the original submission, then you may upload a video in the final submission. However, please do not use special codecs (coders/decoders) to provide as much portability as possible across platforms. Accepted video contributions will be included in the conference proceedings. Here is the detailed video submission guidelines for contributed ICRA papers:

– File size: 20MB
– Format (only one of the following should be used): mpeg, mp4, mpg
– Maximum duration in seconds: 180 sec.
– Minimum height: 480
– Minimum frame rate (fps): 20
– Scan type: Progressive

A video that was NOT originally submitted to a contributed ICRA paper, will NOT be accepted at a later date.

In addition, please prepare the following two plain text files:

Summary.txt file (max 1 KB). Describe in five sentences or less the contents or value of the video. This file helps IEEE Xplore users to make downloading decisions.
ReadMe.txt file (max 10 KB). This file must include the following sections:
Description: An overall description of the objects and what the audience can expect to gain by downloading them;
Player Information: Provide the minimum version of the player software that is required to play the submitted files. Include the name of the software, the version number, and any special requirements for the player; and
Contact Information: The author should provide contact information in case users have questions regarding the extended material. IEEE will not provide any technical support.

Note that both of the above files should be in plain text format and have a .txt extension. They are needed by IEEE in order to include the video in IEEE Xplore.

Author Registration

Robotics and Automation Society and ICRA conference policy requires that at least one author of your paper is registered for the conference prior to final paper upload. Please refer to the registration page for more details on the pricing.

Presentation Date and Time

The ICRA 2024 program will be announced shortly. Once the date and time of your presentation has been confirmed it will be displayed in the “Details” section of your presentation page on InfoVaya (log in to InfoVaya, click on your name, click on your paper title under your “Contributions” section).

All accepted submissions and RAS Journal papers, RA-L, T-RO, T-ASE, and RAM papers, will be presented as oral presentations and also interactive poster presentations. Each session for the oral presentation will include up to nine papers, each of which will be allocated 10 minutes including Q&A.

Final Submission Instructions – RA-L, T-RO, T-ASE, and RAM Papers

The final version of your paper must be submitted on PaperPlaza between 7th February – 6th March 2024 (23:59 PST). You should upload a copy of the pdf that you transferred to ICRA 2024 in PaperPlaza.

Presentation Date and Time

Author Registration

Final Submission Instructions – Final Stand-alone Video (not related to contributed papers)

The instructions on this page apply to ALL ACCEPTED video submissions (not related to contributed papers) for ICRA 2024.

As you prepare the final version of your video, please follow the useful information provided in the initial call for video submissions web-page. Your final version must be submitted using PaperPlaza. The deadline for final video submission is March 15th, 2024 (23:59 US Pacific time). Please ensure that the PaperPlaza metadata such as title, abstract and author list is correct since this information is included in the program.

Finally, the selected videos (and the PDF descriptions) will be linked in the electronic conference proceedings and will also be displayed during the conference and to the public via social media. Guidelines for general audience viewing apply.

Presentation Video Instructions

All accepted ICRA 2024 papers (oral and poster presentations), including RA-L, T-RO, T-ASE, and RAM papers are required to prepare a 7-minute video and upload it to the InfoVaya conference app between 1st April – 12rd April 2024.

This video (which is different from the video accompanying your paper, if you had one) should be self-contained and describe the main contribution of your work.

We are asking all authors to upload a video this year as we are planning on making all content available to attendees a few days prior to the conference so they can make an informed choice of which sessions they would like to attend.

Please see below further information on the format your video should be, advice on how to record it and instructions on how to upload it to the InfoVaya platform.

Video Format

Video file: MP4
Video duration: 7 minutes [max]
Video file size: 100 MB [max]
Video file name: The file name should start with ICRA24_ followed by your paper’s 4 digit paperplaza ID (e.g. authors of paper number 123 would upload ICRA24_0123.mp4)
Video dimension: minimum height 480 pixels HD, aspect ratio 16:9. Zoom (see Video Preparation section below) will automatically apply these settings

Video Preparation

We recommend using Zoom. This will allow you to easily record a compatible, high-quality video from content displayed on your computer screen and voice recorded via the computer microphone.

To use Zoom to capture your video: Create a Zoom meeting where you are the only participant. Start the meeting and share your screen (your presentation slides) and turn on your camera so that your face is visible. Click on “Record” and start recording your video. Showing the speaker’s face is recommended but not mandatory. If you choose to do so, please make sure that the speaker window is on the top right corner of the screen and not covering the slides.

You may find the following “IEEE Video Presentation Guidelines” useful:

https://ieeetv.ieee.org/ieeetv-specials/recording-your-presentation-with-zoom

Audio and Captions

For accessibility, please have captions and a voice over in your video.

You can add captions in the following 2 steps:

(1) Generate an audio transcription of your video (you could do this using Zoom, as explained here: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115004794983-Audio-transcription-for-cloud-recordings).

(2) Burn your captions in your video (you could do this using a free tool like Handbrake (https://handbrake.fr/) or Maestra. The following video explains how this could be done (from 4:30):

File Size

We recommend using the free tool Handbrake to reduce the size of your video. This will make your video upload much faster.

To reduce your video file size:

(a) Drag and drop your video file into an open Handbrake window.
(b) Click on “Video” and check that the “Constant Quality” has a RF value around 22.
(c) Click on the green “Start” button.

Tips for Making Engaging Videos

Tell a story: Think of your presentation as a short story that hooks the viewer so they read your paper. Keep it engaging and accessible. Your story should cover your goal, motivation, method and results. In 7 minutes you probably can’t go into too much detail, so try not to pack everything in, and limit the amount of content on each slide.

Check your Filming Conditions

Think of your background, make sure it’s appropriate, or use a virtual one if easier. Your head should be centred and should take up much of the frame. Remember this will be a small window on your presentation video. Lighting should be in front of you or slightly to the slide (not behind you). Test your microphone and try to limit background noise and alerts from your phone or computer.

Video Submission

You must upload your video on the InfoVaya platform, NOT Paperplaza during the designated timeframe. You will then follow the steps below:

Go to https://events.infovaya.com/event?id=138
Log in with your email (the same email you used to submit your paper to ICRA) and password. First-time users, please click on “Set a new password” and follow the instructions therein to set your password.
Click on your presentation title under “Action Required”
Click on the “Videos” tab
Drag and drop your video file in the “Upload Video” area. Wait on the page until you see the”Video successfully uploaded” message. Your video will appear on the system within 30 minutes
Repeat steps (3) – (5) to upload the videos for all your presentations

Graphical Abstract Instructions

To give attendees a quick idea of your paper at a glance, we also request that you upload an image representative of your work, a Graphical Abstract, which provides a concise, visual summary of the findings of your paper.

The graphical abstract image is used in the conference app on InfoVaya as a thumbnail image for your paper (similar to a Youtube thumbnail image) We recommend including your paper title, author list and then any key images relating to your paper. This can be one of the main Figures in your paper or a collage of key Figures or, ideally, a purpose-made Figure. This should be uploaded to the InfoVaya conference app between 1st April and 12th April 2024.

The graphical abstract image should be:

Size: Your Graphical Abstract could be in either landscape or portrait format. Please ensure that it is of a good visual quality when viewed on the platform.

File formats: JPG, GIF, PNG
File size: max 10MB

You can refer to the following article for more advice on creating your graphical abstract:
“Designing an effective graphic abstract”,
by Alice Chen Kitterman, Science Robotics Vol.6, No.61
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.abn1724

Graphical Abstract Submission

You will be able to submit your graphical abstract along with your other presentation materials on the InfoVaya cloud platform. The ICRA organisers will announce the timeframe for submission.

Go to https://events.infovaya.com/event?id=138
Log in with your email (the same email you used to submit your paper to ICRA) and password. First-time users, please click on “Set a new password” and follow the instructions to set your password.
Click on your presentation title under “Action Required”.
Click on the “Graphical Abstract” tab, and upload your image.
Repeat steps (3) – (4) to upload Graphical Abstracts for all your presentations.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

About uploading and format of papers

Q: When submitting through PaperPlaza for ICRA2024, is there a need to change the RAL/TRO/TASE/RAM format or make any modifications to the paper?

A: No need to restyle the paper as ICRA contributed papers.

The preprint PDF of your RAL/TRO/TASE/RAM paper will be fine, but please keep the header and footer clear since the publication team will stamp a note at both the header and footer places.

Q: Do I need to upload a registration PDF file before uploading our final paper?

A: No need to upload the registration PDF file, but there is a program to check the paper ID/IDs that are covered by the registration of one of the authors. If a paper is without author registration, it will not be included.

Q: I uploaded the pdf the same format as the final RAL submission of the manuscript at Paperplaza. However, after examining the converted PDF file, I can observe that quite a few of the margins are violated. Do I need to recompile the manuscript with a different document class other than the one used for RAL ?

A: If the format follows the RA-L request, it will be fine. Just keep the header and footer clear since our publication team will stamp a note at the top and bottom of the first page of the paper.

6 Pages Limit

Q: The guidelines mention that contributed papers have a page limit of 6 pages. Does this rule apply to papers transferred from RA-L with 8 pages? Do I need to reduce it to 6 pages?

A: As a RAL paper and other RAS Journal paper, you do not need to follow the 6+n policy.
That policy is for papers contributed to ICRA2024 conference only and you can include your all technical content in your RAL paper.

Registration for Authors

Q: The official website says that “at least one author of your paper is registered for the conference before final paper upload”. Under what Category do I have to register?

A: RAS and the ICRA conference policy require that at least one author of your paper is registered for the conference as a regular registration, not the Day Registration, before uploading the final paper.

Stand-alone Video

Q: Are Stand-alone videos considered as with/without paper?

A: A stand-alone video is considered as an item, the same as a paper from the registration viewpoint. Two stand-alone videos are counted as equivalent to two papers.

About Copyright of the Papers

Q: I got my TRO submission paper to ICRA 2024 accepted. Should I just submit my TRO paper? It was already published by IEEE. Are there any copyright issues?

A:Your final submission file could be a preprint PDF file or a published file from Xplore. TRO will hold the copyright of your paper.

Please note that your final submission will be included in the conference proceedings, which will be distributed to all conference participants from InfoVaya, the conference App, and will not sent to IEEE Xplore post-conference.

For further inquiry please contact us at program@2024.ieee-icra.org and member of the team will get back to you as soon as possible.