Special Session Organization is encouraged. The goal of these special sessions is to provide a forum for focused discussions on new topics or innovative
applications of established approaches. A special session consists of four to six papers, which for example could all address a particular theme or consist
of work done in some particular international project.
Prospective organizers are invited to submit their "Special Session proposals" through Paperplaza (http://ras.papercept.net/conferences/scripts/start.pl) by March 3, 2012.
How to write a proposal for a Special Session
Proposals for special sessions consist of the following:
• A proposed title for the session;
• A brief 2-3 paragraph summary for the session explaining the goal of the session and the overarching themes of the submitted papers;
• A list of papers with contributing authors and tentative abstracts for the papers.
There is a two page limit on each proposal. The proposals must be submitted electronically through PaperPlaza before the paper deadline. Authors of papers for special sessions will need the session code for the proposed session to submit the papers for review. Thus session organizers will have to submit the proposals (at least a first draft version) for the sessions well before the paper deadline, in order to timely obtain the specific session code to communicate to authors. Please note all papers (both those for special sessions and regular contributed papers) will be subject to the same rigorous review process which applies to contributed papers not included in special sessions. In case less than four papers submitted to a special session are finally accepted based on the review, the program chair and the special session committee reserve the right to re-assign these accepted papers into regular sessions.
How to submit a contribution to an organized and invited session
Contributions to special session will be submitted using the PaperPlaza system, selecting "Special session paper" from the list in the first page of the IROS 2012 submission system. It is necessary to provide the session code in order to finalize the submission. The mentioned code is provided to the authors by the session organizer(s). Please note that the same submission and review process which applies to regular contributed papers also applies to papers submitted to special sessions.