🎙️ Podcast Link 🎙️

It’s conference paper writing season for #roboticists!

With the 2024 #IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (#ICRA#ICRA2024) deadline just around the corner, I recently ran through a walkthrough of the typical structure and components of a robotics conference paper with our research group.

The Title, Abstract, Introduction, Background, Approach, Experimental Setup, Results, Discussion, References, and a bunch of key tips for how to approach each one, like the critical FPF – First Page Figure, tone in setting up the gap, and flagging to the reader what is a claimed new contribution versus what is included for the purpose of being self-contained.

Here is that walkthrough in video format complete with paper schematic highlighting, as my newest #HackingAcademia video:

Check it out, in this page, on YouTube, or via podcast.

Please reshare if useful 🙏

🕒 Timestamps are as follows:

📌 (0:00) The Structure of a Robotics Conference Paper
📌 (1:22) Overall Length and Composition
📌 (1:59) The Front Page
📌 (2:08) The Title
📌 (3:04) Acronyms
📌 (3:28) The Abstract
📌 (4:19) Keywords
📌 (4:33) The Introduction Section
📌 (4:57) Two Typical Motivating Contexts: Domain vs Technique
📌 (6:08) Pointing Out Gaps Without Being Unnecessarily Negative
📌 (6:53) List of Contributions
📌 (7:33) Differentiation From Similar Previous Work
📌 (8:05) The FPF: Front Page Figure
📌 (9:11) Overview of Paper Structure
📌 (9:31) The Background Section
📌 (9:46) Glue
📌 (10:10) Background Section Subheadings
📌 (10:34) Scope Depends on Your Topic Field Size
📌 (10:58) Focus On Limitations Most Related to Your Contribution
📌 (11:57) The Approach / Methodology Section
📌 (12:47) Clearly Flagging the New Bits
📌 (13:33) The Experimental Setup Section
📌 (15:14) Link to Datasets / Open Source Code
📌 (15:38) The Results Section
📌 (16:03) Three Typical Types of Results Subsection
📌 (16:13) Flagship Results
📌 (16:35) Ablations, Analysis, Failure Cases, Compute
📌 (17:10) Robot Experiments
📌 (17:47) The Discussion And/Or Conclusion Section
📌 (18:05) Brief Recap and Future Work
📌 (19:12) References
📌 (19:47) Checking the Purpose of Every Sentence
📌 (21:24) Minimizing Unnecessary Filler Words
📌 (22:06) Paper Writing Benefits Your Research Far Beyond the Paper Itself

Full Video Notes

It’s that time of year again when many of us in the robotics community are working on the final stages of conference paper submissions to events like ICRA. I’ve recently run through a typical structure of what a standard ICRA paper would look like with my research group. In this short video, I thought I’d share some of the key elements of that structure. I’ve prepared a sketch highlighting all of the structural elements and will display these on the screen as I delve into them.

At this juncture, I’m assuming you’re either nearing the completion of your paper or have a solid draft in hand. This isn’t about the uncertainty of results or ideation. I have produced other videos on generating research ideas suitable for papers. Instead, this video focuses on the typical structure and layout of a paper. Throughout my career, I’ve authored or co-authored, I believe, over 50 ICRA and IRIS papers. Interestingly, if you look back at some of my work, you’ll notice I occasionally break some of the rules I’ll outline in this video. While this is general advice, it’s crucial to understand there are exceptions. Not every recommendation here is essential to produce a compelling paper.

One of the first structural aspects to consider is the paper’s length and what contributes to it. A typical ICRA paper format might allow six pages in a double column format for the main content, followed by an almost unlimited number of pages for references. The advantage of this reference format is that it doesn’t restrict you from highlighting crucial foundational research while focusing on your content.

The front page is of paramount importance, especially for a short conference paper spanning just six pages. Your title takes the top spot, and it’s worth investing time to perfect it. Be concise and specific, eliminating any vague or redundant terms. If you’re coining acronyms, be cautious not to over-complicate or appear too whimsical. Following the title, you’ll find the abstract, which essentially summarizes the research’s story, context, relevance, and significance. Keywords may appear below the abstract or might be entered in the online submission platform.

The rest of the front page is primarily occupied by the introduction section. For a typical six-page conference paper (plus references), the introduction should ideally be contained within the first page. There are generally two approaches to frame your research within the introduction. One could be focusing on the specific problem domain, like autonomous vehicle localization, while the other could involve delving into methodologies or techniques you’re enhancing. Whichever method you opt for, the significance of your improvements must be highlighted. The introduction might also list the paper’s key contributions and how they differentiate from past works. Concluding the introduction, you can provide a succinct roadmap of the paper, laying out what to expect in subsequent sections.

Upon turning to the second page, the background section typically begins. Here, you shed light on key works relevant to your research. It’s wise to initiate each major section with ‘glue,’ a brief introduction contextualizing what follows. This section will likely have subheadings, each detailing different research areas pertinent to your paper’s theme. While discussing these, it’s essential to be objective and not overly critical. The focus should be on the shortcomings directly related to the solutions you present. Concluding the background, a recap can encapsulate what has been presented, set the stage for your contributions, and hint at the challenges your research addresses.

The background section is followed by the approach or methodology section. This is often one of the largest sections of the paper. In this section, you present the key elements and technical details of your approach. If this is a heavily theoretical paper, you may have a lot of theorems or derivations in it. On the other hand, if it’s a more practical algorithmic type paper, you may present actual equations or pseudo code that describes how to implement your approach.

It’s advisable to start the section with an overview. Tell people what you’re going to discuss in the section and why it’s important to understand the overall context of the research you’re presenting. Discuss the various subheadings that you will typically use to break down each component of your methodological contributions. Sometimes, you need to include standard methodological descriptions in your approach and methodology to make the work self-contained. This minimizes the amount of cross-referencing and reading of other papers that readers have to do. It’s crucial to make sure readers understand which parts of your methodology are foundational and which parts are your unique contributions.

Following the approach or methodology section is the experimental setup section. People new to writing papers often struggle with distinguishing between the methodology and experimental setup sections. The experimental setup section focuses on how you tested, evaluated, and assessed the contributions you’re proposing in the paper. This section might include discussions about the datasets you processed, the robot platforms you used, and the metrics for assessing your system’s performance. You might also discuss the parameter values for your system and how you arrived at those values. To assist others in replicating your work, consider including a footnote with a link to datasets or open-source code, ensuring it doesn’t violate any conference requirements.

The results section comes after the experimental setup. This is where you demonstrate your system’s capabilities and compare it to previous systems. Start with an overview that highlights the various subsections and types of results readers can expect. The results section often consists of quantitative results, analysis, and, if applicable, robot demonstrations.

After the results, you can opt for a discussion or conclusion section. In the discussion section, consider a brief recap of the paper and discuss promising areas for future work. After the discussion section comes the references. This section acknowledges and references prior work relevant to yours. It’s essential to cover not only recent work but also pioneering work that might be older.

One valuable step after drafting your paper is to review each sentence’s purpose. Every sentence should have a clear, often singular, purpose. Near the submission time, ensure every sentence is necessary and check if any sentences are missing. It’s also crucial to be concise and avoid unnecessary words.

In conclusion, this video covered the key structure of a robotics conference paper. While this is a small fraction of available tips, it’s essential to remember that writing a paper is not just about the act of writing. The writing process is a constructive part of the larger research process. Happy paper writing!