ICAPS 2023 Call for Papers: Industry and Applications Track

ICAPS is the premier forum for exchanging news and research results on theory and applications of intelligent planning and scheduling technology. ICAPS 2023, the 33rd International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, will host an Industry and Applications Track (formerly known as Novel Applications Track).

The goal of this track is to bring together planning and scheduling practitioners, industry stakeholders and academic communities for exchanging all aspects of the development, deployment, and evaluation of planning and scheduling systems for societal or industrial problems. We aim to bring scientific results from planning and scheduling to practice, but also aim to identify scientific challenges by analysing the limitations of current results to tackle real-world problems. We solicit participation from industry practitioners as well as from academics working on applications.

Submissions can take the form of original technical contributions, long (8 pages plus 1 page for references) and short (4 pages plus 1 page for references), as well as industry abstracts, which are summaries (1 page including references) of recently published work appearing in a related conference.

Topics

Topics addressed in applications papers may include, but are not limited to:

  • Descriptions and models of novel application domains
  • Engineering issues in using planning and scheduling techniques
  • Integration of planning and/or scheduling techniques with techniques from other areas or disciplines
  • Integration of planning and scheduling functions with other functions of an industrial system/process
  • User interface design, visualisation, and explanation for a planning and scheduling application
  • Experiences in development, deployment, and maintenance of planning and scheduling applications
  • Evaluation, testing, and validation of planning and scheduling applications in societal or industrial environments
  • Industry / application challenge problems (including benchmark instances)

Criteria

This track has a separate program committee consisting of individuals with experience working on applications of planning and scheduling technology to societal or industrial problems. Papers submitted to this track will be evaluated using different criteria, particularly:

  • Significance of the application problem being addressed
  • Importance of planning and scheduling technology to the solution of the problem
  • Novelty of the application and technical approach to the application
  • Evaluation of the system and its deployment
  • Clarity of the descriptions of the application problem, techniques used, and results
  • Applicability to real-world problems such as by dataset complexity and actual use in practice

Accepted papers, long and short, will be presented orally as part of the main technical program at ICAPS 2023. They will also appear in the archival proceedings of the conference, published by AAAI Press.

Industry Abstracts

In addition to original contributions, we also solicit abstracts (up to 1 page) from industrial practitioners, which describe recent work on planning or scheduling approaches for solving real-world problems. Selected abstracts will not appear in the conference proceedings, but authors will be invited to present their work as a full-length oral presentation in the main technical program of ICAPS 2023.

Submissions of this type should focus on descriptions of systems that are currently in production or industrial case studies and prototypes where planning and/or scheduling play a prominent role. Abstracts will summarise recently published papers, industrially-focused and appearing in a related and quality conference in the past 2 years (AI, Operations Research, Transportation, etc.). At least one of the authors must be from the respective problem-owning organisation.

Selected abstracts and a reference to the original full-length paper (from its publisher) will both be made available on the ICAPS 2023 website, for dissemination to conference participants and as a permanent reference.

Author Guidelines

Authors of original contributions may submit long papers (8 pages AAAI style plus up to one page of references) or short papers (4 pages plus up to one page of references). The type of paper must be indicated at submission time. All papers, regardless of length, will be reviewed against the standard criteria of relevance, originality, significance, clarity, soundness, and are expected to meet the same high standards set by ICAPS. Short papers may be of narrower scope, for example by addressing a highly specific issue, or proposing or evaluating a small, yet important, extension of previous work or new idea. Overlength papers will be rejected without review.

Authors making multiple submissions must ensure that each submission has significant unique content. Papers submitted to ICAPS 2023 may not be submitted to other conferences or journals during the ICAPS 2023 review period nor may they be already under review, accepted, or published in other conferences or journals. AAAI decisions will be available two weeks before the ICAPS paper submission deadline. This year, the time gap between submissions to major AI conferences is tighter than usual. We had hoped to be able to both accept submissions of papers rejected from AAAI and enable authors to submit papers rejected from ICAPS to IJCAI 2023. However, the timeline is simply too tight for us to do this and maintain the quality of the ICAPS reviewing process. So while rejected papers from AAAI will have decisions early enough to permit revision and resubmission to ICAPS, we are unable to complete our reviews in time for papers to be resubmitted to IJCAI. Specifically, as the ICAPS 2023 notification date is after IJCAI 2023 full paper submission dates, ICAPS authors will not be allowed to resubmit their papers to IJCAI while they are under review at ICAPS, because of single submission requirements of both conferences.

Ethical/Societal Impact

It is optional for authors to include a statement of the potential broader impact of their work, including its ethical aspects and future societal consequences. This statement can be included in either the main body pages or the reference page. If such a statement is not included in the paper but the reviewers deem that such a statement is necessary, then the authors will be asked to provide one during the author response period for review. If the paper is accepted, the statement provided will need to be incorporated in the camera-ready version.

Submission Instructions (Long and Short Papers)

Submissions of long and short papers will be made electronically, through the EasyChair conference system.

Submitted PDF papers should be anonymous for double-blind reviewing, adhere to the page limits of the relevant track CFP/submission type (long or short), and follow the AAAI author kit instructions for formatting.

In addition to the submitted PDF paper, authors can submit supplementary material (videos, technical proofs, additional experimental results) for their paper. Please make sure that the supporting material is also anonymized. Papers should be self-contained; reviewers are encouraged, but not obligated, to consider supporting material in their decision.

Submission Instructions (Industry Abstracts)

Submissions will be made electronically, by email to icaps23.apps@easychair.org. Authors must attach a submission document (single PDF) which includes the following details:

  • A one-page summary of the work, including references (submission authors must be the same as the authors of the paper being summarised)
  • Up to 1 page justification, describing how the work relates to the selection criteria of the ICAPS-23 Industry and Applications Track.
  • A reference for the full-length paper and an unrestricted download link.

The submission document must follow the AAAI author kit instructions for formatting.

Important Dates

We have arranged our schedule to allow for the revision and resubmission of papers rejected from AAAI 2023.

  • November 25, 2022 - Abstracts due (electronic submission)
  • November 30, 2022 - Full papers due (electronic submission, PDF)
  • January 16-19, 2023 - Author feedback period
  • February 4, 2023 - Notification of acceptance or rejection

The reference timezone for all deadlines is UTC-12. That is, as long as there is still some place anywhere in the world where the deadline has not yet passed, you are on time!

ICAPS 2023 Industry and Applications Track Chairs

  • Daniel Harabor, Monash University, Australia
  • Hana Rudová, Masaryk University, Czech Republic

For inquiries contact: icaps23.apps@easychair.org