icra-paper

name

icra-paper

description

Use this skill to help write, structure, polish, format, or review a paper for ICRA (IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, any year), or whenever the user mentions 'ICRA', an IEEE robotics paper, PaperPlaza submission, or IEEEtran double-column robotics manuscripts. Helps with ideation and narrative, section structure, sentence-level polishing, LaTeX/IEEEtran formatting, figures and tables (including leaving sized placeholders for figures), citation verification, and a submission checklist. Single-blind, video-attachment venue. Always verify exact dates, page limits, and policies against that year's official ICRA Call for Papers, since they change annually.

ICRA Paper Writing

Help the user take a robotics paper from idea to a polished, correctly formatted ICRA submission. You can brainstorm the narrative, structure sections, polish prose, build LaTeX/figures/tables (or leave sized placeholders), verify citations, and run a reviewer self-check.

How to use this skill

Pick the workflow that matches the request; load the matching reference file on demand (do not load them all at once):

User wants	Do this	Reference
Find the story / contribution / outline	nail the one-sentence contribution, then outline	references/ideation-and-structure.md
Draft or restructure a section	use the section blueprint	references/ideation-and-structure.md
Polish / tighten / "does this flow"	apply clarity principles + claim-evidence map	references/writing-and-polishing.md
Figures, tables, or placeholders	design or reserve space; generate plots	references/figures-and-tables.md, assets/
Generate a flowchart / pipeline / experiment plot	run the helper scripts	references/generating-diagrams.md, assets/make_flowchart.py, assets/make_experiment_figures.py
Add citations	verify before citing; never hallucinate	references/citations.md
Set up LaTeX / fix formatting / convert venue	template workflow + pitfalls	references/latex-and-submission.md
Final pass before submitting	run the checklist below + 5-dimension self-review	this file + references/writing-and-polishing.md

Be proactive: if the contribution and results are clear, deliver a full draft and flag open choices, rather than asking permission section by section.

At a glance

• Conference: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (annual).
• Submission system: PaperPlaza (https://ras.papercept.net).
• Review model: single-blind (author names usually included; confirm each cycle).
• A supplementary video is allowed and strongly encouraged.

Dates change every year — check the current CFP

Do not rely on memorized dates. For the target cycle, open the official site (e.g. https://20XX.ieee-icra.org) and read off the paper deadline, notification, camera-ready, and conference dates/location. Rough rhythm (planning only): paper deadline around September of the prior year; conference the following May/June.

Format (ICRA-specific)

• Template: IEEE conference template, IEEEtran class, two columns, 10pt, US Letter.
  • ICRA commonly uses \documentclass[letterpaper,10pt,conference]{ieeeconf}, or the standard IEEEtran conference template per the CFP.
• Length: typically 6 pages of technical content; up to 8 allowed with an over-length charge for pages 7-8. References usually count toward the limit. Confirm in the CFP.
• Video: common limits around 3 minutes and tens of MB; check the CFP for exact specs.

Structure notes specific to ICRA

Follow the general blueprint in references/ideation-and-structure.md, with robotics emphasis:

• Lead the abstract with the concrete capability and a key quantitative result.
• Include a clear system/architecture figure early (reserve it with a placeholder if needed).
• Experiments: report real-robot or hardware results when possible; give the platform, sensors, and compute; report success rate, timing, and failure modes, not just averages; multiple trials with variance.
• Tie video segments to specific figures/claims.
• State assumptions explicitly (known map, calibrated camera, etc.).

Submission checklist (ICRA)

• IEEEtran/ieeeconf class, two columns, no margin hacks, fonts embedded.
• Within page limit (budget over-length fees if using pages 7-8).
• Single-blind: confirm whether author names appear this cycle.
• Video within size/length limits and self-contained.
• PaperPlaza metadata, keywords, and PINs for all authors complete.
• References complete with DOIs; all verified (no hallucinated entries).
• No TODO/figure placeholders left; figures vector and grayscale-legible.
• 5-dimension self-review passed (references/writing-and-polishing.md).

When helping the user

• Ask the target topic/track and whether they have real-robot results.
• Offer to scaffold an IEEEtran skeleton, draft contribution bullets, build the system figure as a placeholder, or tighten the experiments section.
• Flag anything that depends on the CFP (page fees, video specs, blind policy) and suggest confirming on the current ICRA site.