international-symposium-on-robotics-research - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: international-symposium-on-robotics-research description: Use when targeting International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR) or deciding whether a computer-science manuscript fits this venue. Encodes conference fit, framing, evidence bar, submission-cycle checks, rebuttal posture, and desk-reject risks for robotics research.

International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR)

Conference positioning

International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR) is a top computer-science conference venue for robotics research, foundational robot algorithms, embodied intelligence, and emerging directions. It rewards a robotics paper with symposium-level depth and clear research agenda value. Treat this skill as a fit / venue-selection / re-framing tool for conference submission strategy, not as a substitute for the current year's CFP, author kit, ethics policy, or submission portal.

Because CS conferences change deadlines, templates, page limits, review workflow, artifact rules, AI-use policy, and rebuttal formats every cycle, always verify the live official instructions before making a submission-ready recommendation. Start from the official source anchor recorded for this venue in ../../resources/conference-roster.md and ../../resources/official-source-map.md.

When to trigger

The author names ISRR / International Symposium on Robotics Research as the target venue.
A manuscript in robotics research needs a conference-fit read before being formatted or submitted.
The paper must be re-framed from journal style or arXiv style into a selective CS conference narrative.
The author needs an evidence-gap, anonymity, artifact, rebuttal, or re-routing diagnosis for this venue.

Scope & topic fit

Core fit: robotics research, foundational robot algorithms, embodied intelligence, and emerging directions.
Best submissions make a precise contribution type visible: algorithm, theorem, system, dataset, benchmark, empirical finding, design artifact, tool, or socio-technical analysis.
The paper should explain why the result matters to ISRR's reviewers, not just why it is interesting to the authors' lab or product context.
Position related work against the most recent conference-cycle papers in this venue and its closest siblings; stale comparisons are a common early-review weakness.
If the contribution is interdisciplinary, state which part is CS research and which part is domain evidence.

Venue-specific calibration

Reviewer lens: Treat ISRR as a robotics research venue whose reviewers expect the scope and evidence to match its own community. Do not submit a generic CS paper until the introduction names the exact subcommunity, contribution type, and proof or empirical standard.
Contribution hook to foreground: the venue-specific contribution bar.
Scope vocabulary to use naturally in the abstract and introduction: robotics research, foundational robot algorithms, embodied intelligence, and emerging directions.
Distinctive fingerprint for reviewer calibration: robotics, foundational, robot, algorithms, embodied, intelligence, emerging, directions, venue-specific, contribution, isrr-robotics.
Official anchor domain: www.isrr-robotics.org. Quote annual rules only after opening that source and the current-year CFP/author kit.

Close-neighbor routing guardrail

Route to ISRR when the paper offers symposium-level robotics research depth: a conceptual agenda, durable research question, or synthesis-backed result that will matter beyond one experiment.
If the value is primarily hardware trial evidence, compare ISER. If it is learning-heavy, compare CoRL. If it is a broad robotics systems paper, compare ICRA/IROS/RSS.

What distinguishes this venue from its closest siblings

What ISRR is. The International Symposium on Robotics Research — single-track, foundational and forward-looking robotics.
vs ISER. ISER (Experimental Robotics) emphasizes experiment-validated results; ISRR leans foundational/visionary.
vs ICRA/IROS/RSS. ICRA/IROS are large IEEE flagships, RSS is single-track foundations; ISRR is a selective symposium — route by format and emphasis.

ISRR-specific routing detail

Prefer ISRR when the paper makes a broad robotics research contribution: principles, theory, architectures, long-horizon agenda-setting results, or deeply integrated robotic systems.
Route experiment-heavy validation papers to ISER, regular-cycle flagship robotics work to RSS/ICRA/IROS, and human-facing interaction studies to HRI/RO-MAN.
ISRR evidence should connect the result to durable robotics research questions, not only a benchmark win or one-off deployment.

Method & evidence bar

Report hardware, simulation, environment, task distribution, reset procedure, and failure cases; embodied evidence must be inspectable.
Compare against meaningful robot-learning, planning, or control baselines under matched assumptions.
Separate simulation gains from real-world transfer and quantify reliability, not only best-case success.
For ISRR, the evidence must support the venue-specific signature: a robotics paper with symposium-level depth and clear research agenda value.
Include limitations, negative results, compute/resource reporting, data provenance, and ethics details when they affect the claim.

Structure & house style

Lead with the robot task and system constraint before the algorithmic component.
Use video or supplementary material only as allowed by the current anonymous-review policy.
Use the current official template exactly; do not guess page limits, font sizes, supplement rules, anonymity exceptions, or camera-ready requirements from old cycles.
The introduction should answer: problem, why now, what is new, why this venue, and what evidence proves the claim.
Put the strongest result in the main paper, not only in the appendix or supplement; reviewers should not have to reconstruct the contribution.

Official-cycle checklist

Open the live official venue page: https://www.isrr-robotics.org/
Re-check the current cycle's CFP, author kit, submission system, abstract/paper deadlines, page limits, supplementary-material rules, anonymity policy, dual-submission policy, ethics policy, AI-use policy, artifact/code/data expectations, rebuttal/author-response format, and camera-ready requirements.
Confirm the review workflow and portal: OpenReview / CMT / HotCRP / PCS / START or society portal, as specified for the current cycle.
Check whether accepted papers require in-person presentation, separate registration, artifact badges, proceedings copyright, or post-acceptance release forms.
If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win.

Pre-submission self-check

One sentence states why this manuscript belongs at ISRR, using the venue's scope rather than generic "top conference" language.
The claim is calibrated to the evidence: no broader than the datasets, proofs, systems, user studies, deployments, or threat model support.
Related work includes the nearest current-cycle robotics research papers and explains the technical delta.
The paper satisfies the current official template, anonymity, ethics, artifact, and rebuttal requirements.
The main paper is self-contained enough for reviewers to evaluate novelty and correctness without hunting through external links.

Common desk-reject triggers

Simulation-only evidence for a claim about real robots.
No clear task distribution, few trials, or missing failure analysis.
A learning curve without robot-specific insight or system integration.
Formatting, anonymity, dual-submission, external-link, or supplement violations under the current-year policy.
A contribution framed for a neighboring field while giving ISRR reviewers too little technical or empirical substance.

Re-routing decision

If the paper misses ISRR's bar, compare against ieee-international-conference-on-robotics-and-automation / ieee-rsj-international-conference-on-intelligent-robots-and-systems / robotics-science-and-systems / conference-on-robot-learning. Re-route based on contribution type, not prestige: theory to a theory venue, systems to a systems venue, application-heavy work to a domain venue, and early ideas to workshops or shorter tracks when the official CFP supports them.

Output format

[Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason)
[Target] International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR)
[Contribution type] algorithm / theory / system / dataset / benchmark / empirical / design / security / other
[Main evidence gap] <single most important missing proof, experiment, study, artifact, or policy check>
[Official items to re-check] CFP / author kit / deadline / format / anonymity / ethics / AI-use / artifact / rebuttal / camera-ready
[Top rejection risk] <venue-specific risk>
[Re-route suggestion] <better-matched conference or journal if not a fit>