WFCS 2021 Call for papers
17th IEEE International Conference on Factory
Communication Systems (WFCS), June 9th-11th 2021
New FIRM Dates
| Deadline | Notification | Camera Ready Version | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar. 13, 2021 | Apr. 29, 2021 | May 13, 2021 |
The Factory Communication area is facing the leap of new generation wired and wireless technologies e.g. TSN, WiFi6, 5G, and more, expanding from automation to the IIoT. Induced by the rapid change in consumer electronics towards high performance wireless, also many new industrial applications are about to move into the wireless domain. These strong and appealing ideas create many challenges addressed by recent research. Nevertheless, wired communication is also substantially developing, e.g. TSN, thus improving dependable real-time communication. More and more distributed control applications have an increasing need for real-time data exchange. Mobile robots and UAVs used in factories introduce the need of seamless integrated distributed systems to connect edge computing to intelligent IIoT. Hence, challenging questions arise on wireless and wired communication in IT and OT industrial networks supporting data, sensor, and actuator communication. In those systems, security is a major concern to lay base for safe processes. Measures from AI to physical layer security contribute to a next generation dependable factory communication regardless if wired or wireless. The 17th edition of WFCS will focus on these challenges. The WFCS is the largest IEEE conference especially dedicated to communications for industrial automation systems. It is held the first time in Linz, Austria, an industrial emerging area with leading industries. It is a melting pot of academia and industry. This fact is shown by the local organizer mix of this WFCS which are Johannes Kepler University Linz, Silicon Austria Labs and Linz Center of Mechatronics GmbH. The WFCS is supported by IEEE and IES and led by the IEEE TC on Factory Automation, and will be hosted by the Johannes Kepler University Linz.
FOCUS ON:
Communication Systems and Technologies; Protocols and Standards for Networked Embedded and Cyber-Physical Systems; Real-time, Safety, Security and Maintenance of Automation Systems and Networks; applying Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to enhance and Communication Technologies for Industry 4.0; Low-power and Green Communication in Industry; recent advances in research domains with similar communication requirements.
SUBMISSION OF PAPERS:
The WFCS conference is seeking submissions of up to 8 double-column pages reporting on novel and significant contributions to the field of industrial communication systems. Prospective authors are encouraged to submit a pdf version of their papers through the WFCS submission system. The submitted material (in English language) must be unpublished and not under review elsewhere. Submissions must include e-mail addresses of the corresponding author.
All regular submissions must follow the IEEE conferences template and submitted through "IES Conference Community". Starting from this year, the WFCS conference has been integrated in the new "IES Conferences Community" https://confcomm.ieee-ies.org/submit-manuscript/WFCS21. If you encounter any problems with the submission system please contact conferences@ieee-ies.org.
Work in progress papers
New FIRM Dates
| Deadline | Notification | Camera Ready Version | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 9, 2021 | May 23, 2021 | May 30, 2021 |
Exchange your ideas at an early stage of the work and discuss recent results in the community through the work in progress track. These sessions are intended for presentation of recent ideas and on-going works up to 4 double-column pages, describing research that has not yet produced the results required for a regular paper, but that due to its novelty and potential impact deserves to be shared with the community at an early stage. WIP submissions should be prepared according to the same guidelines as regular papers, and should be submitted through the appropriate track in the electronic submission system. Accepted WIP papers will be published in the conference proceedings.
Authors of accepted WiP paper will give a 5 minute oral presentation at the WiP sessions, and will also present an A0 poster during the poster sessions.
Joint Call for Papers with TII Special Section on “Advanced Industrial Communication Sytems”
New FIRM Dates
| Deadline | Notification | Camera Ready Short or Regular Conference Version | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar. 13, 2021 | Apr. 29, 2021 | May 13, 2021 |
WFCS 2021 seeks submissions of regular and work-in-progress papers. For regular papers, there is additionally a joint call with the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (TII). Authors interested in using this joint call are asked to prepare their papers according to the guidlines provided at the "Paper submission" page and submit them to the dedicated track in the submission system. These papers will undergo a first round of review that selects:
- papers potentially suitable for the TII
- papers potentially suitable for WFCS, but not for the TII
Reviewers wil be explictly asked to assess if the paper has a potential to be ultimately accepted in TII, possibly also with additional revision and review rounds.
Subsequently, papers will follow different paths, in agreement with the result of the above selection. Authors of papers selected for possible publication in the TII Special Section will be asked to provide a short version of their papers (4 pages) that will be presented at WFCS and published in the conference proceedings. In addition, the full paper should be revised according to the reviewer feedback and submitted to the TII Special Section. From this point on, the paper will be further processed by TII like a normal TII manuscript.
SUBMISSION OF PAPERS:
If you want to submit your paper to the joint call, please prepare it like a normal regular paper. IN ADDITION, as TII uses a double-blind review policy, author names must be removed from the manuscript, in accordance with the regular guidelines of TII. Papers not adhering to these rules cannot be considered for the joint call. The paper must be submitted to the special "SS Transactions on Industrial Informatics" track in the new "IES Conferences Community" https://confcomm.ieee-ies.org/submit-manuscript/WFCS21.
When preparing your paper, please bear in mind that you are actually writing a journal paper. In order to be eligible, reviewers must be able to see that the paper has a fair chance to be ultimately accepted in TII. Papers requiring a substantial amount of additional work in order to meet journal standards will typically not be selected for the TII Special Section in order to avoid disappointment, but may be found acceptable for the conference as a regular paper.
Special Session on Reliable Wireless Mechatronics for the Factory Floor
New FIRM Dates
| Deadline | Notification | Camera Ready Version | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar. 13, 2021 | Apr. 29, 2021 | May 13, 2021 |
Wireless technology has recently become an important focus of study in the modernization of the industrial workcell. Discussed within the parameters of Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing, wireless technology promises the advantages of cost reduction by the elimination of cables and conduits to the enablement of a high degree of mobility of autonomous actors within the workcell that includes aspects of collaborative robotics, supervisory control, and safety. Leveraging these promises, engineers within the industrial space are looking to replace wires within their automation control systems thereby creating a wireless cyberphysical system (or a wireless mechatronic system). By seeking to replace those cables, a new increased risk of failure exists due to the use of wireless where cables were once deployed. Wireless technology succumbs to sources of disruption where wired technology appears to be immune. Radio interference and congestion all limit the performance of the industrial wireless network and could therefore lead to a difference in performance of the physical system being controlled within the workcell. Challenges of wireless mechatronics systems include the tracking and control of movable equipment, collision avoidance, spatial reconfigurability, dynamic wireless channels, and the maintenance of safety all of which require aspects of real-time communications, spatial reconfigurability, and energy efficiency. An additional challenge of deploying wireless for automation within the factory floor includes the identification of key performance indicators(KPIs) for the informational and operational technology components of the wireless automation systems within the factory workcell. This special session will focus on the concepts, design approaches, performance test and evaluation methods, and metrics within wireless mechatronic systems.
FOCUS ON:
The special session will focus on (but not limited to) the following topics:
- New directions in reliable wireless sensor/actuator signaling within the factory
- Advances in wireless robotics systems, collaboration, actuation, monitoring, and control
- Advanced modulation and coding techniques for wireless sensor/actuator communications
- Comparisons of wireless technologies applicability to mechatronics systems
- Advanced approaches to wireless-control co-design for improvement of reliability metrics
- Wireless channel modeling for highly dynamic factory operational scenarios
- Realizable wireless diversity approaches for improving system reliability
- Advanced strategies in applying wireless in safety integrated systems (SIS)
- Methods to capture, analyze, and use data from heterogeneous wireless sensor/actuator sources
- Real-world wireless applications, demonstrations, and results of solutions from testbeds, simulations, and live deployments
- Practical contributions, solutions, and real use cases for wireless in Industry 4.0.
- Ontologies within wireless mechatronics systems, common terminologies and definitions
- Requirements analyses of latency and reliability for wireless mechatronics systems
- Metrics, methods, and key performance indicators in industrial wireless automation
SUBMISSION OF PAPERS:
The Special Session seeking submissions of up to 8 double-column pages reporting on novel and significant contributions. Prospective authors are encouraged to submit a pdf version of their papers through the WFCS submission system. The submitted material (in English language) must be unpublished and not under review elsewhere. Submissions must include e-mail addresses of the corresponding author.
All special session papers must follow the IEEE conferences template and submitted to the special "SS Reliable Wireless Mechatronics" track in the new "IES Conferences Community". Starting from this year, the WFCS conference has been integrated in the new "IES Conferences Community" https://confcomm.ieee-ies.org/submit-manuscript/WFCS21. If you encounter any problems with the submission system please contact conferences@ieee-ies.org.