--- name: rss-workflow description: Use when planning an RSS (Robotics: Science and Systems) campaign end to end — the late-January abstract/paper/supplement cascade, the invited-rebuttal window, late-April decisions, July conference week — and when placing RSS inside the year-round ICRA/IROS/RSS/CoRL robotics deadline calendar. --- # RSS Workflow Project-manage an RSS submission against its real calendar. Anchor every date to the current edition's pages; the 2026 dates below are a verified historical snapshot (source map rows 1-3, checked 2026-07-08), not a promise about 2027. ## Where the cycle stands right now (as of 2026-07-08) - RSS 2026 (22nd edition, Sydney: UTS + ICC) runs **July 13-17, 2026** — conference week starts in days. The submission funnel (abstract Jan 23 → paper Jan 30 → supplement Feb 6 → invited rebuttal Apr 3 → decisions Apr 27, all AoE) is closed. - Accepted authors are in final-presentation mode: talk, poster, travel, and artifact release (`rss-camera-ready`, `rss-artifact-evaluation`). - Everyone else is planning **RSS 2027**, whose site, dates, and deadlines were unposted at check time (待核实). The recent pattern — late-January deadline, July conference — is a planning hypothesis only. ## The robotics year, seen from RSS RSS shares its authors with three siblings, so choosing RSS is also choosing a slot in an annual rotation. Approximate recent geometry (verify each venue's live pages): | Venue | Typical deadline | Typical event | What slipping past RSS costs | |---|---|---|---| | RSS | late January | July | Next comparable single-track slot is a full year away | | IROS | ~March | ~October | Natural catch for a paper 6 weeks short of RSS-ready | | CoRL | ~June | ~November | Right jury if the learning story dominates | | ICRA | ~September | ~May/June | Broadest program; absorbs systems breadth | The practical use: a project that misses the January bar honestly should aim at IROS or CoRL rather than submit thin — RSS's selectivity makes weak submissions expensive in reviewer goodwill. ## Backward plan to a late-January deadline | Weeks out | Milestone for a claim-plus-hardware paper | |---|---| | 12+ | Scientific claim fixed in one sentence; evidence plan sized to it | | 10 | Hardware trial campaign running; failure attribution logged from day one | | 6 | Ablations that isolate the mechanism complete | | 4 | Full draft; supplement storyboard; internal red-team read | | 2 | Anonymity sweep of PDF and media; OpenReview metadata entered | | 1 | Abstract registered; buffer for robot downtime already spent | | 0 | Paper in; supplement due one week later — do not design it that week, only pack it | The one-week paper→supplement gap (2026: Jan 30 → Feb 6) is packing time, not filming time; footage shot after the deadline cannot support claims already frozen in the PDF. ## Conference-week execution (the stage that is live right now) For teams presenting at the current edition, the final week has its own checklist: - Confirm the talk slot, format, and timing against the official program page; a single-track schedule has no parallel-session slack for overruns. - Load footage locally; conference-venue networks are not a playback plan. - Push the public artifact release live *before* the talk — the single-track audience is the largest referral event the repository will ever get (`rss-artifact-evaluation`). - Prepare the poster to carry the evidence detail (trial counts, failure distribution) that the talk compresses away. - Assign one author to note every hallway objection; those are free previews of the journal-extension reviews. ## RSS 2027 monitoring plan Nothing about 2027 was posted at check time. Watch these, in this order, starting early autumn 2026: 1. https://roboticsconference.org/ — the banner rebinds to the new edition. 2. The RSS Foundation calendar page (roboticsfoundation.org). 3. The OpenReview venue namespace for a `RSS/2027` group appearing. 4. The CFP page for the new deadline cascade and any format change — the 8-page ceiling and the two-stage rebuttal are both cycle policies, not fixtures. ## Stage-specific traps - **February-March silence:** first reviews are not public-scheduled; do not plan team availability assuming a known release date (待核实 each cycle). - **The rebuttal is conditional:** only papers above a first-round threshold are invited to respond. Plan an April window in calendars *without* assuming it will be used (`rss-author-response`). - **April 27 → July is short:** visa lead times for the host country can exceed the decision-to-conference gap; start paperwork at submission time for likely-accept projects. - **No standing editors:** the Program Chair and Area Chairs rotate per edition (2026 PC chair: Matei Ciocarlie, Columbia — verified 2026-07-08); never carry a name or a policy across cycles. ## Ownership map for a multi-person campaign Robotics submissions fail at handoffs; name owners early: | Workstream | Single owner for | |---|---| | Claim custody | The one-sentence claim; vetoes scope drift in any section | | Trial campaign | Protocol document, ledger integrity, daily campaign log | | Media | Footage banking from every session; the supplement cut | | Anonymity | The sweep across PDF, video, archive, and OpenReview fields | | Deadline mechanics | AoE conversions, form fields, upload confirmations | Footage banking deserves emphasis: clips must be captured *during* the campaign, because the supplement freezes one week after the paper and reshoots after the paper deadline cannot support frozen claims. ## Output format ```text [Cycle position] planning 2027 / drafting / submitted / rebuttal window / accepted / conference week [Next hard date] [Critical path] [Fallback venue] IROS / CoRL / ICRA + trigger condition [Calendar risks] ```