Author Information


The submission form for Camera-ready submissions will open on May 16th.

Instructions for uploading the pre-recorded paper presentations

At RSS 2020 all paper presentations will be pre-recorded. They will be hosted on YouTube and will be made available before the conference and stay accessible indefinitely (similar to the recordings of the talks from last year).

The pre-recorded presentations need to be submitted by June 20th 2020 (Anywhere on Earth). The submission link was given to authors in the Email on June 5th. You are free to use any tools you like to create the video. Below we compiled a list of potential tools for your help. The requirements for the videos are:

  • Duration max. 5 min
  • MP4 format
  • File size max. 500 MB
  • 16:9 aspect ratio (strongly preferred)
  • 1920x1080 resolution (strongly preferred, at least 720 height)
  • Should ideally have an inset with a video of the speaker

Please contact Jens Kober j.kober@tudelft.nl (Virtual Conference Arrangements Chair) for questions related to the video submission.

Tools for recording the presentations:

  • Debut (Windows, Mac): Free, allows including webcam https://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html
  • OBS Studio (Windows, Linux, Mac): OpenSource, allows including webcam https://obsproject.com/
  • PowerPoint (Windows, Mac): Narrations and timing can be directly recorded in PowerPoint and exported as videos. Recordings are on a per slide basis (i.e., you cannot talk during slide transitions). Recent versions (Office 365) enable recording a webcam inset as well (Windows only) https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/record-a-slide-show-with-narration-and-slide-timings-0b9502c6-5f6c-40ae-b1e7-e47d8741161c?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us
  • Loom (Windows, Mac): Pro version is free for educational institutions, allows including webcam https://www.loom.com/education
  • Zoom (Windows, Linux, Mac): Using “local recording”. Free version is sufficient. Tends not to record videos embedded in the presentation very well, allows including webcam https://zoom.us/
  • CamStudio (Windows): OpenSource, allows including webcam https://camstudio.org/
  • Ezvid (Windows): Free, allows including webcam https://www.ezvid.com/download
  • SimpleScreenRecorder https://www.maartenbaert.be/simplescreenrecorder/ / kazam https://launchpad.net/kazam (Linux): OpenSource, screen capture only

General tips:

  • Prepare a script on what to say. This will also help to cut the video later.
  • Record in one long session, repeating parts that you didn’t like on the fly.
  • Then cut together the parts you like (might be easier if you prepared a script earlier).

Free cross platform (Windows, Linux, Mac) video editing tools:

  • DaVinci Resolve: advanced (excellent, but might need nvidia GPU, esp on Linux) https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/sa/products/davinciresolve/
  • kdenlive: advanced https://kdenlive.org/en/
  • ShotCut: advanced https://shotcut.org/
  • avidemux: simple http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/
  • lightworks: advanced https://www.lwks.com/
  • OpenShot: advanced https://www.openshot.org/

Instructions for Camera-ready Submissions

The conference proceedings for Robotics: Science and Systems 2020 will be published online with open access, and in a book. A revised version of your paper is due to be uploaded to CMT by AOE June 3, 2020. Please note that there will be no additional opportunity to revise your paper. In preparing for the proceedings, please follow the author guidelines posted below under “Paper Format.” In particular, if more than 8 pages are used for a paper, the 9th page and any subsequent pages can contain ONLY references. There is no provision for supplementary materials in the proceedings. Therefore, please embed links in your pdf to stable URLs for any additional content. Your proceedings submission should, of course, include your names, affiliations, and acknowledgements as we are past the double-blind review phase. In terms of content, please incorporate your reviewer and meta-reviewer comments.

Author Agreement Form: One author must complete, sign, and upload the author agreement form to CMT.

How to access everything:

  1. Login to CMT at https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/RSS2020
  2. Make sure your role is “Author”
  3. Click on “Create Camera Ready Submission” in the “Actions” column for each of your accepted papers.
  4. You will be taken to a new screen where you can modify:
    • The title and abstract
    • Names and ordering of authors
    • Upload files: a camera-ready PDF [MANDATORY], and the author agreement form [also MANDATORY]. Please make sure you submit both forms. You can upload newer versions of these files until the deadline.

Submission Instructions

Browse to https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/RSS2020/ for submissions.

  • Logging into the system: If you already have a CMT account, use those credentials to login. If you do not, sign up as a new user.
  • Conflict domains: When you login for the first time, CMT will prompt you to enter your conflict domains. You will not be allowed to start the submission process without finishing this step.
  • Paper submission: Enter title, abstract, and authors. Select your primary and secondary subject areas. Your paper may now be uploaded. Papers must be in the accepted conference style format and must be submitted as a PDF. Papers may be edited, updated and replaced up to the full paper final submission deadline. Answer if your first author is a student (eligible then for the Best Student Paper Award) and select which Area Chair might be best suited to handle your submission. Finally, if you want your accepted paper to be considered for invitation to special issues of IJRR and TRO with expedited review, please give your consent to us forwarding the reviews to the journal editors who decide on such invitations.

  • Paper ID: After clicking the Submit link, your paper will be assigned an ID.
  • Supplementary material: Authors may submit supplementary material such as a video or an expanded version of a proof (20MB max, accepted formats: avi, mov, mp4, mpg, pdf, tar, tgz, zip). Please note that the link to upload supplementary material becomes active only after the paper submission is complete.

Paper Format

We only accept submissions in PDF. Submissions may be up to 8 pages in length, including figures but possibly excluding references. Additional pages can be used for references. However, the 9th page, and any subsequent pages, can contain ONLY references. This will be strictly enforced. Submissions can use a font no smaller than 10 point. Submissions violating these guidelines will not be considered. A paper template is available in LaTeX and Word. Please read the detailed instructions.

Supplementary Materials

Authors may submit supplementary material such as a video or an expanded version of a proof. The deadline for supplementary material is the same as for paper submission. Note that reviewers are not required to view this material and include it in their assessment of the paper. Lastly, if authors feel they must link to additional supplementary material, they are cautioned to ensure that their identities are not revealed. Please note that the link to upload supplementary material becomes active only after the paper submission is complete.

Double Blind Submission

Reviewing for RSS 2020 will be double blind, so authors should not be listed on the title page and reasonable anonymity should be maintained in the paper. Authors are asked to take particular care when referencing their own work - careless use of self citations can easily violate the requirements for double blind reviewing and this will result in papers being rejected. Please read the detailed instructions.

Multiple Submissions

Submissions that are identical (or substantially similar) to versions that have been previously published, or accepted for publication, or that have been submitted in parallel to other conferences are not appropriate for RSS and violate our dual submission policy. Exceptions include technical reports and arXiv. Please read the detailed instructions.

Plagiarism

RSS is utterly intolerant of plagiarism. Submitted papers are expected to contain original work executed by the authors with adequate, proper and scholarly citations to the work of others. It is the job of the authors to clearly identify both their own contribution(s) and also published results / techniques on which they depend or build. RSS reviewers are charged to ensure these standards are met. In cases of alleged plagiarism, the program chair will be guided by Section 8.2.4 Allegations of Misconduct as laid out by the IEEE in this document.

Review Process

Please read the review form to understand our emphasis this year. Authors, Program Committee members, and Area Chairs will all be anonymous. Each paper will receive 3 reviews. This year, we will have no rebuttals nor conditional acceptances.