Background and Purpose of the International Sessions

  The 30th annual conference of the Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ) will be held at the Sapporo Convention Center. Papers are welcome from various areas of robotics. The conference has many participants from industries, research institutions and universities.
   This RSJ annual conference accepts not only Japanese but also English presentation in any general or organized sessions. However, majority of the conference participants are Japanese and presentations and discussions are mostly in Japanese. In order to make it easier for researchers whose native language is not Japanese to attend the conference and present their work, the RSJ have been organizing several international sessions in this annual conference. The official language of the international sessions is English and all participants of these internal sessions including presenters, chairpersons, and audiences are required to use English.
   We do not charge any fee for participating the international sessions. The cost for presenting papers in the international sessions and participating these sessions is totally FREE. Please note, however, that the conference DVD and the conference digest (conference kit) are NOT provided to the participants of the internal sessions. If you need the conference kit, you have to pay conference registration fee (the amount depends on your status, such as RSJ member, non-member, or student). Also note that you have to pay conference registration fee to attend other sessions which is NOT arranged as an international session.
   Other than that participation fee is free, the internal sessions will be treated in the same way as other regular/organized sessions, namely, your paper will be included in the conference DVD and the conference digest.

Information for Participants of International Session

The international sessions (IS) will be held in room D (#101) on September 18 and 20. The room D is on the street level of the Sapporo convention center building. Consult a website for information to get the conference site.
http://www.sora-scc.jp/eng/index.html

Participants first visit a reception desk for the IS in front of the room D. The IS part of the advanced program is available from http://www.rsj.or.jp/rsj2012/files/ISAP.pdf . General advanced program is http://www.rsj.or.jp/rsj2012/m_program.html . Note that a charged conference registration is necessary to participate in any events except the IS.

For the international session, each author is given 15 minutes: 10 minutes for presentation, four minutes for discussion, one minute for equipment settings. Photography and audio/video recordings without permission from a chairperson and presenters involved are strictly prohibited.

Call for Papers

  International Sessions, the 30th Annual Conference of the Robotics Society of Japan

  Date: Sept. 17 (Mon) - 20(Thu), 2012
  Venue: Sapporo Convention Center
            (1-1-1 Higashi-Sapporo 6-jo, Shiroishi-ku, Sapporo, 003-0006, Japan)

Important Dates
  Deadline for paper submission: July 20 (Fri), 2012(firm)

Paper Submission
  Authors are requested to follow the normal submission procedure and upload their papers electronically in PDF format through the conference website. The detailed procedure for submitting a paper is shown below.

  The fee for paper submission to the international sessions is free.

IS1:   Robotics Research in the World

1. Organizer
   Akihiro MATSUMOTO (Tokyo University),
   Yasuhisa HASEGAWA (University of Tsukuba)
2. E-mail
   akihiro [at] toyo.jp, hase [at] iit.tsukuba.ac.jp
3. Abstract

  This session will introduce the status of robotics research in the world, including the robotics research of the oversea universities. In this session, the presentations, questions and answers will be performed both in English.

IS2:   Research by Foreign Researchers in Japan

1. Organizer
   Akihiro MATSUMOTO (Tokyo University),
   Yasuhisa HASEGAWA (University of Tsukuba)
2. E-mail
   akihiro [at] toyo.jp, hase [at] iit.tsukuba.ac.jp
3. Abstract

  The purpose of this session is to encourage students and researchers whose native language is not Japanese to present their latest research results in English. We welcome any topics related to robotics in this session. Researchers who prefer communicating in English are encouraged to present their work in this session.

IS3:   Women in Robotics

1. Organizer
   Gentiane VENTURE (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT))
2. E-mail
   venture [at] cc.tuat.ac.jp
3. Abstract

  Though research and developments in Robotics are very active, the share of women pursuing a career in this area is extremely low all over the world, in particular in Japan. What is decisive in a career choice and how to encourage young women to choose Robotics as a major? This international session aims at gathering people interested in the feminization of the Robotics fields. The presenters will all be women working in Robotics. Based on the presentation of their latest research works, the variety of topics and of career paths will be discussed.

IS4:   Humanoid

1. Organizer
   Eiichi YOSHIDA (CNRS-AIST JRL, UMI3218/CRT)
   Abderrahmane KHEDDAR (CNRS-AIST JRL, UMI3218/CRT / LIRMM)
2. E-mail
   e.yoshida [at] aist.go.jp
3. Abstract

  Humanoid robots involve a wide range of topics on robotics research, including hardware design, control, planning, and interaction, etc, . In this international session, we would like to organize a showcase of humanoid research conducted in Japan by foreign researchers, in collaboration with Japanese researchers. Submission of papers on a variety of humanoid-related research from diverse instituts is welcome.

IS5:   Assistive Robotics

1. Organizer
   Tomohiro SHIBATA (Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST))
2. E-mail
   tom [at] is.naist.jp
3. Abstract

  Robotics has the potential to develop innovations in assisting the lives of both healthy and unhealthy persons. This session aims at providing an opportunity of exchanging ideas and sharing practices about assistive robotics across people and research teams. Topics may cover a broad spectrum of assistive robotics, such as mechatronics, control, perception, planning, human-robot interaction, and rehabilitation.

Deadline for paper submission

July 20 (Fri), 2012 (firm)

1. Writing manuscripts

• Manuscripts for the International Sessions must be in English, and more than 1 page and less than 4 pages of A4 size.
• Please download and use the following Latex or Microsoft Word templates.

【Sample Files】

• For formatting your page, set the top and side margins to 20mm and the bottom margin to 27mm. This gives a space of 250mm*170mm for your document.
• Use two columns in all pages except for the title and the author information.
• Please use 10pt font for the main text. Followings are the guidelines for the structure of a paper written in English.

【Writing in English】

1. Title : 16pt, Roman, boldface type
2. Author names and affiliations : 12pt, Roman (put an asterisk * on the presenter)
3. Main text : 10pt
4. References : 9pt

• In the main text, each reference citation should be enclosed in brackets, and all references should be listed together at the end of the manuscript. Their formats are based on those of the Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan.

1. Journals:
   [number] author names: “paper title”, title of the journal, volume, issue, pp.xxx-xxx, year.
2. Books :
   [number] author names : title of the book, publisher, year.

2.Creating a PDF file

  The submitted PDF file will be included “as is” in the conference DVD-ROM. In order to minimize the efforts to revise and reformat by the conference organizer, please double-check printing qualities, security settings, and formats of your manuscripts before submission. Contact us if you have any inquiry before submitting your paper.

  When creating a PDF file, the following guidelines must be followed:

• The file size should be less than 3M Byte.
• Don't over-degrade the printing quality when reducing the file size.
• Since submitted files will be edited later by the conference organizer to include some information, such as header and footer, don't activate any security options of your PDF file.

【2.1. Quality and security settings of the PDF file】

  If you use Adobe PDFMaker or Distiller to create a PDF file, follow the following instructions. Even though you use other tools, please apply the following settings to create a PDF file properly.

【Case I. Creating a PDF file using PDFMaker from MS Word】

1. Select [Preferences] in the "Create Adobe PDF" section from [Acrobat] of MS Word's top menu.
2. In the "Settings" tab, select either "Standard" or "High Quality Print" option in the "Conversion Settings" pull-down box.
3. In the "Security" tab, deselect all options for password and permissions.

【Case II. Creating a PDF file using Distiller】

1. Select either "Standard" or "High Quality Print" option in the "Default Settings" pull-down box.
2. Deselect all options for password and permissions in the [Settings]-[Security] menu.

【2.2. How to check the created PDF file】

   Before submitting your paper, the authors are encouraged to check the created PDF file using Adobe Reader (or Acrobat Reader) in the following way.

1. Select [Select Tool] in the [Tools]-[Select & Zoom] menu.
2. Select some parts of text and check whether the selected part can be copied as text. If it is not possible, the file might be converted with the option of “to images”. Change the option to “to PDF” and try again.
3. Select [Properties] from [File] menu.
4. Check whether the "Security Method" in the [Document Properties]-[Security] tab is set to "No Security".
5. Print the file and check whether the quality of the document is good enough for publication. And confirm that the top and side margins are 20mm and the bottom margin is 27mm, respectively.

【Notes for special characters】

• Please do not use Roman numerals and/or any special characters.
• Please spell-out any Greek characters.

3. Creating conference digest materials

  Besides conference DVD containing papers in PDF format, we will make conference digest booklet. An example of the digest is here.

  The following materials should be prepared:

1. Abstract of your paper within 440 characters (about 70 words).
2. An explanatory figure/image of your abstract.
   (The file size should be less than 500K Byte. An example of the figure is here.)

  Please follow the following guidelines:

• The abstract will be printed at the left side of the explanatory figure as shown in the sample.
• It is strongly recommended to write your abstract as plain text. Copying and pasting letters directly from word processing softwares may cause errors at the online submission process.
• Maintain the aspect ratio of the image to be 5:3(horizontal:vertical). If letters are included in the figure, the font size should be greater than 10pt.
• GIF and JPEG formats will be accepted. Save the image with grey-scale option (the conference digest will be printed in B/W).
• Since three abstracts are supposed to be printed in each page of the conference digest, keep in mind that the size of the image might be small (about 95mm*57mm) and the printed quality might be limited (100~200 dpi).
• The size of the image might be adjusted according to the size of page.

  When yorur submission is completed, you receive an e-mail with your paper submission ID and your password. This ID and password attached on the bottom of the e-mail are necessary when you re-upload the file.
  Your submission has NOT completed, if you do not receive the e-mail from the paper submission system.

Please refer the following steps for uploading files

【Step 1.】
  To submit a paper, click "Initial submission" in the center of the paper submission page.
  If you confirm or update your paper, login the file uploading system with your paper submission ID and password. When you login first time, you have to check "Agree" to express your agreement about the copyright policy of the RSJ. If you are uploading a file first time, please.

【Step 2.】
  Move to the bottom of the page and click "移動/Move" in the "論文連名者だが発表者ではない方 / International Session" section to open "Registration and Paper Submission" page. In the "Registration and Paper Submission" page, you can enter the paper information.

【Step 3.】
  First, select an appropriate session from the International Session list by cliking "国際セッション（International Session）." Then input the paper title and author information.
  Unlike other regular sessions, non RSJ members are allowed to present a paper in the International Sessions.
  If you are not a RSJ member, chose "入会申請中 / International Session" in Membership status and fill "70707" in a RSJ member number blank and in a registration number blank. You input an abstract of your paper within 440 characters (about 70 words) and specify your image file for the conference digest. Select an image file using the "File selection" button.
  Then specify your PDF file of the paper. You may also include a movie file in the conference DVD. The total size for your PDF file and movie file should be less than 4M Byte. Award nomination is not applicable for the papers in the International Sessions.

【Step 4.】
  Finally, input the information of the contact person. Then press the button at the bottom "Confirm" of the page to confirm the information you entered. If the system shows some errors in your data, correct them. After you confirm the data, press the upper bottom "Submit" located at the bottom of the confirmation page (lower bottom is for going back to the paper submission page) and upload your information to the system.
  When your registration and file uploading process is completed, you will receive an e-mail including the paper information, your paper submission ID and password.
  Note that your submission is not completed if you do not receive the e-mail from the paper submission system.

  If you have any questions about International session, contact the following organizers:

  E-mail: akihiro[at]toyo.jp, hase[at]iit.tsukuba.ac.jp

  Unlike the regular session of the annual conference, advanced registration is not necessary for participating in the International sessions. During the conference days, there would be a registration desk for the International session participants. You can directly go to that desk and sign up. That's all what you have to do. We look forward to seeing you soon in the RSJ2012!

【Remark】
  The fee for participating in the International sessions is free. However, please note that a charged conference registration is necessary to obtain a conference DVD-ROM and a conference digest.