Dear Author:

Congratulations for the acceptance of your contribution to the IEEE Transactions on Soft Robotics (T-SRO)!

You have two weeks (14 days) from the date of Editor’s decision about acceptance to submit your final material for publication via T-SRO PaperCept at http://ras.papercept.net/journals/tsro. When ready, please follow the link “Submit final version” next to the accepted paper in your Author workspace to access the fully electronic final submission procedure. Note that only the corresponding author of the paper has this link active.

Revise the accepted paper following the indications of the Editor upon acceptance, if any, and prepare accordingly the final version in the IEEE Transactions format.

The key tools and information for final manuscript preparation are available at https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org (see “IEEE Author Tools for Journals”), including the mandatory IEEE LaTeX or Word templates and style files as well as the guidelines for graphics and for multimedia material. In particular, please pay attention to the electronic format of the figures provided, and to the quality of your multimedia material (if present), its portability on standard platforms, and the requested accompanying files.

It is possible to update your final paper as needed, including slight changes in the title, abstract, order in the list of authors, bibliography, figures and tables, and so on. Please note, however, that all final material needs to be approved by the T-SRO Editor-in-Chief before being electronically dispatched to IEEE. In case of problems, you will be contacted. Any major changes, as e.g. the removal or addition of an author or significant alterations to the content, must be notified directly to the supervising Editor and the EiC with a detailed justification. Failure to do so might entail time-consuming due diligence, and thus potentially compromise publication.

In the final submission procedure, you need to provide separately a PDF file of the complete final version of your paper. This version must meet all formatting and style requirements, and will be used as a camera-ready version to appear as a Rapid Posting preprint version on Xplore. Rapid post preprints are citable papers and have a permanent DOI. This PDF version will also be used as the main reference, in the unlikely event of discrepancies with respect to the source files you will provide.

Please, do not prepend a “cover page” to your final paper and insert the figures and tables inside the main text of the paper, where they should be located at best. The final appearance should be as close as possible to the published T-SRO paper.

The page count limit of the PDF file of your final paper is 12 (twelve) pages in Transactions format without page charge. This should include the author list, the footnote containing all relevant information (further details in the next section), and the author bibliographies at the end of the manuscript. No additional pages are allowed.

For any further doubts, please contact the T-SRO Editor-in-Chief.

Thank you again for your contribution to the IEEE Transactions on Soft Robotics.

Upon acceptance of the manuscript in T-SRO, there are two important tasks for the Authors. Notice that Acceptance in T-SRO is always conditional on Authors fulfilling the following two requirements. Failure to comply with either requirement will lead to disapproval of the final submission, and a request of re-submission.

1. Carefully heed to all technical suggestions from the Editor and reviewers. If required, provide details on what changes were made to the final version in the cover letter. If the changes require significant explanation, you can include a pdf document in the zip file submitted with the source files for the final version
2. Carefully follow the formatting instructions below. Authors must reformat the paper to prepare a camera-ready version to immediately appear as a preprint on Xplore, while the XML-tagged and copy edited version that will eventually be archived is being prepared by IEEE offices.

Below you can find detailed instructions on the format for final submission. First you should look at an example of how the final version of your paper should look like.

Please make sure you follow the exact text below and customize all text bold underlined in the list below. Explanations provided in [bracketed italics] are not to be included; these are for explanation only.

1. Header:
   • Page 1 and even pages: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFT ROBOTICS. PREPRINT VERSION. ACCEPTED MONTH, YEAR [Provide the month and year in which you are submitting your final version]

• • Odd pages except page 1: LASTNAME et al.: SHORT TITLE
    [Last name should be that of the first author plus et al. for 3+ authors (LASTNAME et al.), that of both authors for 2 authors (LAST NAME1 and LAST NAME2), and that of the author for single author. The short title should fit in a single line]

2. Paper Title: Preparation of Papers for IEEE Transactions on Soft Robotics (T-SRO)
   [Replace the placeholder title above with your own paper title]
3. Authors: First A. Author1, Second B. Author2, and Third C. Author1 …
4. Footnote sentence 1: Manuscript received: Month Day, Year; Accepted: Month Day, Year. [Received date is that of the initial manuscript on papercept and accepted that of the decision on the final revision.]
5. Footnote sentence 2: This paper was recommended for publication by Editor FirstName A. EditorName upon evaluation of the Associate Editor and Reviewers’ comments.
   [Note that the Editor is the Senior Editor who communicated the decision to you; this is not necessarily the same as the Editor-in-Chief.]
6. Footnote sentence 3 (optional): This work was supported by (organizations/grants that supported the work).
7. Footnote sentence 4: (Corresponding author: Corresponding Author [Do not remove the parentheses]
8. Footnote sentences 4, 5, etc. in a separate paragraph: 1First Author and Third Author are with School of Engineering, Robotics Department, University of Somewhere, Someland [email protected]. 2SecondAuthor is with School of Engineering, Automation Department, University of Anywhere, Anyland [email protected].
9. Last sentence in footnote: Digital Object Identifier (DOI): see top of this page. [Use the text above verbatim; do not customize because IEEE staff will add the DOI here.]
10. Bibliography: All papers should contain biographies of all authors according to the T-SRO format available at https://template-selector.ieee.org/.

After formatting the manuscript as explained above, the following steps should be completed:

1. Finalize the title and author list

2. Transfer copyright to IEEE

3. Complete the submission meta data

4. Upload the PDF with the final version (in IEEE T-SRO format) of the manuscript

5. Upload the Source files of your paper

6. Upload the Multimedia Attachment

The explanation of each step is in the following drop-downs.

The title and author data are preloaded from the database of the accepted version of your paper. You can update and complete the title and author data fields as needed.

If you need to change the order of authors or the corresponding author, or add/delete authors then follow the link Update the author list.

In case of any substantial change to the title and author list (e.g. adding/removing an author), the supervising Editor and EiC should be alerted directly, with a justification of the reasons and evidence of agreement of all involved parties. Failure to do so might entail time-consuming due diligence, and thus potentially fail the strict publication deadlines.

The author data are for the information of the publisher. IEEE membership status is also required. Please, include the fax number (with country and area code) at least for the author who is to receive the galley proofs (by default, the corresponding author). While IEEE will make galley proofs available to this author through a web link, fax could be used as an alternative communication for special situations.

Edit and complete the various fields as needed and click on the Save button at the bottom of the page.

Hint: Changes of author data made on this page are local in nature. You may wish to update first the personal information associated with your PIN and the PIN of your coauthors. Those updates will then be reflected in the author data fields present in this page.

Warning:

At the end of this step, the title and the author list should be considered as definitive. It is important that you do not change them later, in particular, once the transfer of copyright to IEEE has been completed.

Title of the paper and complete list of authors are preloaded from the database (possibly, after having been updated in the previous step). Make sure that they correspond exactly to the definitive ones.

T-SRO participates in the IEEE E-Copyright program. In this step, you will be taken to the IEEE Electronic Copyright Form site by clicking on the Continue button.

If you cannot access the IEEE site then please return later. Make sure that your browser has cookies enabled. If the IEEE server denies access then you may have been directed to the submission management system through a site using frames. Please log in to the submission system in a separate window or tab.

After completing the procedure at the IEEE Electronic Copyright Form site you must follow this instruction on the Congratulations page:

“Click on the Return button below to return to the Originating Site.”

If you do not click on the “Return” button on this final page then T-SRO PaperCept is unable to determine that copyright was transferred and you will not be able to complete the final submission.

i) Read this: if you are not authorized to transfer the copyright yourself

If you are not authorized to transfer the copyright of this publication yourself but need another person in your organization to do this then please access the IEEE copyright wizard by clicking on the Continue button and supplying the correct answers to its questions. It will ask you for the details of the person who needs to be approached.

When the procedure has been completed the IEEE wizard will not return you to T-SRO PaperCept but you will need to log in again.

As soon as you receive word that copyright has been transferred, return to this page in the Final Submission and click on the Continue button to re-access the IEEE wizard. The first page of the wizard will show a message confirming that copyright has been transferred. When you click on the Return button on that page you will be returned to the T-SRO PaperCept system, which displays a confirmation that copyright has been transferred.

ii) Read this: if copyright was transferred but T-SRO PaperCept does not reflect this

After the copyright transfer has been completed successfully, you should be able to finalize the submission. If for some reason this procedure cannot be completed then please send a copy of the copyright transfer receipt that has been received from IEEE to the T-SRO editorial office ([email protected]) so that the system may be updated manually. Do not omit to mention the submission number.

Some fields in this step are preloaded from the database of the accepted version of your paper. You can update and complete them as needed.

a) Previous presentation

Complete the information about any conferences where the material of the paper was presented. Use a free text format if several conferences were involved.

b) Keywords

Check the existing and/or supply suitable (additional) index terms. Please note that at least two and up to five T-SRO keywords should be used. These keywords must coincide with those appearing in your final PDF version just beneath the abstract.

c) Source material

Specify here just the format of the source files of your final paper. Only LaTeX or MS Word (or compatible) are accepted. The use of IEEE LaTeX or Word templates and style files is mandatory. Please also make sure that you followed the formatting instructions available in the IEEE T-SRO website under Instructions for Authors > Manuscript Preparation > Final Submissions.

d) Figures

Specify here:

– the number of figures in the paper

– the number of figures that are to be printed in color

Figures in T-SRO papers are published on IEEE Xplore in color or black-and-white as supplied, at no charge for color pictures. If any of the color figures is to be published on Xplore in black-and- white or if both a color and a black-and-white version are supplied then provide clear instructions here.

Upload here the PDF file with the final version of your manuscript. The maximal size allowed is 10 MB.

The manuscript should be in the 2-column IEEE format for Transactions. If you do not submit the paper in this format, you will be contacted again to reformat the paper (this might pose the publication deadline at a peril).

Please notice that the final version of your paper has a different format than your initial submission, to have a proper Journal appearance. Detailed instructions are available in the Formatting Instructions section above.

In your text, make sure to put at least two and up to five T-SRO keywords just beneath the abstract

If you are using LaTeX, download the style files (IEEEtran.zip) from the IEEE Author Digital Toolbox and prepare your Regular paper using the default command:

• \documentclass[journal]{IEEEtran} (the default font dimension is 10pt)

Please, remember the following:

– use the IEEE LaTeX or Word template and style files

– do not include a “cover page” in your manuscript

– insert the figures and tables inside the main text of the paper

– include in the manuscript also the authors photos and bio-sketches

– the system does not allow upload of papers longer than 12 pages

Upload here all source files needed for the final version of your manuscript in a single zipped archive file. The maximal size is 100 MB, with extension zip.

The acceptable formats for graphic files and photos are: Postscript (PS), Encapsulated Postscript (EPS), Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), Microsoft Word, Microsoft Power Point, Microsoft Excel, or Portable Document Format (PDF). In general, files prepared as GIF, JPEG, WMF, PNG, and BMP (or in any other file formats not listed) are not acceptable and will not be processed.

This file should include the supplementary materials in the form of text and figures as a single zip file.

For more information, see the IEEE website https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org (see “IEEE Author Tools for Journals”).

This step is present only if the accepted paper already had a Multimedia Attachment file and/or Supplementary Materials files. If either type of files were submitted and reviewed, they should also appear in the final version, unless the Editors have explicitly suggested not to do so. You may choose to copy the existing files on the server without re-uploading it or re-upload a new file. For checking purposes, you can also download the existing files on the server.

The Multimedia Attachment file should include the multimedia files (typically, one or more videos), and the Supplementary Materials should contain all other types of files (supplementary content in formats such as PDF, datasets, and other associated files). The Multimedia Attachment file and the Supplementary Materials should each contain ReadMe and Summary files in text format, each in a single zipped archive file. The maximal size of each file is 100 MB, with extension zip.

For the actual content of the ReadMe.txt (user requirements) and Summary.txt (short description of the content) files, please refer to the indications on “Submission of Multimedia Material” given at the T-SRO website. In particular, please pay attention to the preparation of videos so as to ensure their portability (visibility) on standard platforms, and follow the IEEE guidelines in referencing to multimedia within the body of the paper.

This material will be archived in IEEE Xplore side by side to the PDF of your paper.