Submitting a final camera ready paper (invited or contributed) to ICRA 2008

Overview and general instructions:

Prospective authors must submit their papers electronically in PDF format no later than midnight (US Pacific Time) on February 11, 2008. Manuscripts must be in English. Six pages in the standard ICRA format (see instructions below) are allowed for each paper, including figures. A maximum of two additional pages are permitted at an extra charge payable at the time of submitting the final, camera ready version of the paper.

For your final paper to be part of the conference proceedings, at least one of the authors listed on the paper must register for ICRA 2008 when the final manuscript is uploaded to PaperPlaza. At the time time of uploading the final manuscript, a single conference registration can be used to upload at most 2 papers. When you upload your final paper, the PaperPlaza system will ask you for a 'paper upload fee' which covers your registration and extra page charges (if applicable).

All final paper contributions will consist of a PDF file (max 2 MB) and a single PowerPoint slide for the ICRA 2008 Digest. If you originally submitted a video accompanying your paper, you will also be able to submit the final video (max 5 MB) as part of the final submission material. When preparing your final paper, please take into account reviewer comments. When preparing your final video accompanying your paper please also take into account reviewer comments. If there are no changes to the video there is no need to upload the video file again. The original version will be used as the final one (this can be specified during the final submission procedure in PaperPlaza).

Before submission, the PDF file of your final paper should be checked for IEEE Xplore compliance. General information on how to create IEEE Xplore compatible PDFs is available on the information page for using IEEE PDF eXpress.

Each accepted paper may also be accompanied by a hardcopy poster for display and presentation at the conference venue. This is optional. Posters cannot be submitted through PaperPlaza. If (and only if) your paper is accepted to appear in the conference proceedings, you may bring an accompanying hardcopy poster with you to the conference to display. Only posters corresponding to accepted papers will be displayed; there is no separate poster-only track. Information on posters (size, template) is available here. The conference organizers will not be able to assist with poster printing.

Final paper submission is via the PaperPlaza system. We strongly recommend that you follow the following step-by-step instructions when preparing your paper, digest slide (required), and final video (if applicable to your paper).

Preparing and submitting your paper/digest slide/video:

Step 1: Write your paper using the available LaTeX or MS Word templates. Please do not change the formatting in any way. If you choose not to use these templates, please make sure that your paper strictly adheres to these formatting instructions. Note, however, that we strongly encourage you to use the available templates. Your paper should be entirely self-contained. If it is accompanied by a video, an explicit reference to the accompanying video should be present in the text of the paper.

Step 2: Double check that the names of all authors and their order is identical in the PaperPlaza submission system, the paper, the digest page, and the accompanying video (if applicable). Please write names with only the first letter capitalized, i.e., do use "Firstname Lastname" in all instances and do not use "FIRSTNAME LASTNAME" anywhere.

Step 3: Create a PDF version of your paper adhering to these instructions. These tips may be helpful. Alternatively you may proceed directly to the next step and have IEEE PDF eXpress create your PDF file for you.

Step 4: Login to IEEE PDF eXpress (conference ID: icra08) and create the PDF file for your paper if you didn't create a PDF file yourself in Step 2. If you have already created a PDF file for your paper, login to IEEE PDF eXpress (conference ID: icra08) and use it to check if your PDF file is IEEE PDF compliant.

Step 5: As in previous ICRA conferences, there will be a Digest distributed to all registered participants of ICRA 2008. The Digest includes general information and the whole technical program. There will be one PowerPoint slide illustrating each paper (organized in sessions). To prepare the Digest slide corresponding to your paper, please use only the PowerPoint template available here. Please follow the instructions given on the slide. The Digest will be printed in black & white, though you may use color pictures within your slide. Please have your PowerPoint file ready for upload when accessing the final submission procedure in PaperPlaza.

Step 6: (Applicable only to those papers which have an accompanying video)

Authors of papers originally accompanied by a short video (1-2 minutes) that has been jointly accepted with the paper should include the video (max 5 MB) in the final submission material.

Videos should not use special codecs (coders/decoders) in order to provide as much portability across platforms as possible. We strongly recommend the most common media formats (mpeg 1 or mpeg 4). Only freely available players (e.g., QuickTime, RealPlayer, Microsoft Windows Media Player, MPlayer) should be required for viewing the video. Providing video portability is a responsibility of the authors, also in their interest.

Although the final paper has to be self-contained (i.e., fully readable and understandable independently from the video), an explicit reference to the accompanying video should be present in the text of the paper.

The accompanying video(s) will appear in IEEE Xplore, as enhanced object(s) next to the PDF version of the paper. To facilitate this, authors are required to submit the following two additional files.

Summary.txt file (max 1 KB)
This describes in 5 sentences or less the contents or value of the extended object (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:

1. Description: An overall description of the objects and what the audience can expect to gain by downloading them;
2. 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;
3. Contact Information: The author should provide contact information in case users have questions regarding the extended material. IEEE will not provide any technical support.

Step 7: Submitting your final contribution via PaperPlaza

Proceed with this step once you have the following files in your posession:

1. (Required for all papers) The IEEE PDF compliant version of your paper. (see steps 1-4 above)
2. (Required for all papers) The Digest slide in PowerPoint format adhering to the template. (see step 5 above)
3. (For papers accompanied by videos) The final video and two accompanying files Summary.txt and ReadMe.txt. (see step 6 above)