# 15th European-African Regional Conference of the ISTVS
ISTVS 2019 | September 8–11, 2019 | Prague, Czech Republic
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Our international conferences form an amazing legacy since our first meeting in 1962 in Turin, Italy — International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems (ISTVS) today is a connected group of collaborative professionals from industry, universities, and research institutions who have been meeting over five decades to share research findings.
» [Call for Papers](https://istvs-conf.squarespace.com/submission-prague)\
» [Conference brochure](https://istvs-conf.squarespace.com/s/Prague_conference.pdf) (pdf)
The 15th ISTVS Europe-Africa Regional Conference will provide you a place where you can exchange ideas and receive technical information on current and future research and technology developments in terramechanics and terrain/road-vehicle system dynamics, control, design, vetronics, autonomous vehicle systems and Industry 4.0. Commercial and personal transportation vehicle applications include:
* Trucks and cars
* Military vehicles
* Construction, forestry, and mining equipment
* Farm tractors and machinery
* Unmanned ground vehicles for military, space exploration
* Development of vetronics systems for on ground vehicles
* Autonomous driving systems
**Hotel International Prague**\
» [Full location and reservation information](https://istvs-conf.squarespace.com/location-prague)
For any questions, please contact the conference secretariat:\
Markova Ekaterina,
### Program highlights
**Pre-Conference Event** // Saturday, September 7, 2019 // Professional course\
**Conference Day 0** // Sunday, September 8, 2019 // The conference begins Sunday evening, September 8, 2019, with our ever-popular Ice Breaker Party — you’ll have the opportunity to interact informally with colleagues from all over the world.
***
**Conference Days 1-3.** Enjoy presentations and plenary sessions, including our awards programs and meals:
**Day 1** // Monday, September 9, 2019 // Opening Ceremony, Keynote Speech, Oral Session, Banquet\
**Day 2** // Tuesday, September 10, 2019 // Our popular and valuable technical tour\
**Day 3** // Wednesday, September 11, 2019 // Oral Session/Poster Session, Closing Ceremony
***
### Conference in detail
The aim of the conference is to further advance knowledge in terrain-vehicle and road-vehicle system dynamics and design and, thus, to discuss and suggest new frontiers and research directions, facilitate engineering practice, and benefit the society at large in the area of the energy conservation, environmental sustainability, safety, cyber/physical security, application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques in Terramechanics and development of vetronics systems for civil and on ground moving military vehicles.
#### Objectives of the Conference
1. Present recent research and engineering accomplishments and achievements to engineering colleagues and peers
2. Discuss research findings, exchange information and share new knowledge with engineering colleagues and peers
3. Discuss and suggest new frontiers and research directions in the ISTVS area
4. Attract automotive industry and robotics engineering companies to the Conference and ISTVS activities
5. Expand participation of government research agencies and academia (faculty, research staff and students) in the Conference and ISTVS activities
6. Present accomplishments of the Journal of Terramechanics and discuss its future plans
7. Discuss and suggest new university-level education courses and programs in the ISTVS area
8. Discuss new events for future ISTVS conferences, including workshops, seminars, etc.
9. Network and establish new research and engineering contacts for national and international collaboration and partnership between industry, academia and government research agencies in research, engineering and university-level education
10. Introduce and present a new progressive topics in Terramechanics science
11. Have an engineering tour and learn more about new places and cultures
#### The objectives will be achieved through:
1. Discussions at the Board of Directors’ meeting
2. Presentations and discussion of research papers at eight symposia
3. Conducting a panel discussion with the participation of ISTVS leading researchers and automotive industry
4. Arranging poster sessions
5. Presentations at the dinner and lunch time
6. Discussions of the four groups that were previously established: Planetary Rovers and Mobile Robotics; ISTVS Standards; Terramechanics; Off-Road Vehicle Dynamics
7. A technical tour in the Prague area and eminent Czech industrial companies
***
### Topics to be covered
The conference will take place over 3 days. There will be a poster session during the conference. Technical presentations and group discussions are planned during the dinner and lunch time.
#### The following technical symposia are planned:
**1. Terramechanics, locomotion, and soil/terrain modeling**\
1.1. Recent accomplishments in terramechanics research and education\
1.2. Locomotion systems\
1.3. Soil and terrain modeling and characterization\
These three symposia concentrate on new research directions in terramechanics science and its applications to vehicle engineering and academic education, including areas of modeling, computer simulation and design of tire/wheel, track and other locomotion/vehicle systems, various types of soil and snow modeling and characterization, uncertainties and stochastic characteristics of vehicle-environment interaction.
**2. Advances in mobility, energy efficiency, and ground vehicle dynamics**\
Topics include analytical and experimental methods of energy efficiency improvement, terrain vehicle mobility off-line and real-time estimation, operational and tactical vehicle mobility, agile dynamics and performance in severe environmental and traffic conditions, coupled and interactive dynamics of vehicle multi-physics systems, conflicting multi-input-output system dynamics.
**3. Agricultural, construction, forestry, and mining equipment**\
This symposium invites papers on specifics of mobility, vehicle dynamics and design of farm tractors and machinery, construction and forestry equipment, earth moving, and mining machines. Topics include energy efficiency and engineering productivity, power hop, mobility, etc.
**4. Mobile robotics for ground applications, planet exploration, and other environments**\
Papers on planet vehicle exploration, mobile ground robots, underwater and surface robotic vehicles are invited to present advances in mission/task fulfilment, mobility and energy efficiency, dynamics and innovative system designs.
**5. Military ground vehicle robotics**\
This symposium covers surface and topographical terrain mobility, operational and tactical mobility, battlefield mobility of unmanned and remotely controlled vehicles and vehicle convoys. Topics include, but not limited to, agile performance and adaptive perception of vehicle dynamics, optimization of the required motion and mission accomplishment with minimal energy consumption.
**6. Innovative system designs for terrain and road vehicle applications**\
This symposium focuses on innovative system designs and controls, sensing and actuation with mechatronic implementation in conventional and driverless vehicle applications. Topics include, but not limited to, cyber-physical systems in vehicle dynamics, mobility and agility control, sensor/data fusion, vehicle system communication and connected vehicles, active and passive safety and vehicle protection.
**7. Terramechanics-based AI techniques and controls for autonomous mobility**\
This session invites papers on applications of terramechanics principles integrated with artificial intelligence (AI) techniques and various controls to advance autonomous mobility of unmanned ground vehicles, mobile robots, and mobility of conventional off-road vehicles with autonomous sub-systems.
**8. Vetronics, Autonomous vehicle systems and Industry 4.0**\
This new section welcomes all papers on advanced technologies topic in fields of development, design and implementation of vetronics, autonomous vehicle systems and traffic control, including Industry 4.0 program employment in civil and military vehicle engineering branch.
# Program
ISTVS 2019 | September 8–11, 2019 | Prague, Czech Republic
## Program highlights
### **Conference Agenda**
Wall-Ye
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FINAL Program Update 6 September
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**Pre-Conference Event** // Saturday, September 7, 2019 // Professional Advancement Course. Details below.
**Conference Day 0** // Sunday, Sept 8, 2019 // The conference begins Saturday evening September 8, 2019, with our ever-popular Ice Breaker Party — you’ll have the opportunity to interact informally with colleagues from all over the world.
* ISTVS Board Meeting
* Registration and Ice Breaker Party for All Conference Attendees and their Registered Guests (RSVP required at the registration)
**Conference** // Enjoy presentations and plenary sessions, including our awards programs and meals:\
**Day 1** // Monday, September 9, 2019 // Opening Ceremony, Keynote Speech, Oral Sessions, Evening Banquet\
**Day 2** // Tuesday, September 10, 2019 // Technical tour\
**Day 3** // Wednesday, September 11, 2019 // Oral Session/Poster Session, Closing Ceremony
#### N E W F O R 2 0 1 9
### ISTVS Professional Course TRENDING TOOLS AND APPLICATIONS OF TERRAMECHANICS
ISTVS is pleased to invite you to explore the trending tools and applications of terramechanics. Six top speakers from different backgrounds and perspectives will deliver five hour-long talks about the influence of artificial intelligence on terramechanics, terramechanics applied to planetary exploration, geospatial and seasonal mobility analysis, advanced modeling tools, and terramechanics applied to military vehicles.\
Members, €100; Non-Members, €150\
Space limited, separate registration required:\
»
**Saturday, September 7, 2019**\
**Welcome** // 9AM-9:15AM\
**Lesson 1** // Artificial intelligence and simulation tools applied to off-road mobile robotics. Ramon Gonzalez, robonity, Spain. 9:15AM-10:15AM\
**Lesson 2** // Terramechanics for planetary exploration missions. Lutz Richter, OHB System AG, Germany. 10:15AM-11:15AM\
**Lesson 3** // Geospatial and Seasonal Mobility Analysis. Sally Shoop, U.S. Army, ERDC-Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, USA. 11:15PM-12:15PM\
**Break** // 12:15PM-1:00PM\
**Lesson 4** // Modeling the vehicle-terrain interaction with advanced tools. Shingo Ozaki, Yokohama National University, Japan. 1:00AM-2:00PM\
**Lesson 5** // Terramechanics for military vehicles. The NATO Reference Mobility Model. Susan Frankenstein, U.S. Army, ERDC-CRREL, USA, and Ole Balling, Aarhus University, Denmark. 2:00PM-3:00PM
[REGISTER NOW](https://2019.istvs.org/)
## Program in detail
### Session: Terramechanics-based AI Techniques and Controls for Autonomous Mobility
*New Technical Session*\
This session invites papers on applications of terramechanics principles integrated with Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques and various controls to advance autonomous mobility of unmanned ground vehicles, mobile robots, and mobility of conventional off-road vehicles with autonomous sub-systems.
The session papers will be comprised of, but not limited to, the following topics and their potential combinations: real-time observers and controllers, model-based and model-less methods, neural networks and learning systems, human-in-the-loop, etc., which should be based on principles of terramechanics and off-road vehicle dynamics.
Special attention will be devoted to terramechanics-AI-technologies, which extend the capabilities of vehicles to operate in multi-phase environments of challenging severe terrain and weather/climate conditions, that it could not possible before AI was employed.
This session will also welcome field-tested projects where the use of AI-related techniques address critical problems of off-road mobility such as tire slippage, vehicle entrapment, minimizing energy consumption, and maximizing vehicle traction.
Applications of single vehicles and units of vehicles can include various UGVs, planetary exploration rovers, farm/forestry machinery and construction equipment, battle management systems, etc.
*Session Co-Organizers*\
**Vladimir Vantsevich, ScD, PhD**\
University of Alabama at Birmingham
**Ramon Gonzalez, PhD**\
Robonity
**David Gorsich, PhD**\
US Army TARDEC
## Program committee
Thank you for your participation in the technical program of the 15th European-African Conference of the ISTVS, 8–11 September 2019. Our organization has been meeting since 1962 and our conferences are a rare chance to meet with colleagues with specialized expertise in soil-vehicle interactions.
Your contributions in the form of inviting participation from colleagues and reviewing abstracts and papers in the run-up to the conference — and then making your conference session a success — are the very heart of the benefits of ISTVS to all our members.
In the left column you'll find the dates and deadlines for the review process. Below you'll find:
1. [Roles and Responsibilities](https://istvs-conf.squarespace.com/program-2019#roles) // A summary of the roles and responsibilities of a conference session co-chair.
2. [EasyChair Setup](https://istvs-conf.squarespace.com/program-2019#easychair-setup) // Instructions on getting your account established with our conference system tool, EasyChair.
3. [Your EasyChair Account](https://istvs-conf.squarespace.com/program-2019#easychair-personal) // Instructions for updating your personal account in EasyChair when needed.
4. [Reviewing Your Paper Assignments](https://istvs-conf.squarespace.com/program-2019#reviewing) // Instructions for completing the paper reviews you have agreed to complete.
You might want to bookmark both this page and the long URL for our submissions page login — and you can always return to this site [conference.istvs.org](http://conference.istvs.org/) to find your way back, as well!
[Easychair Conference Prague 2019](https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=istvs2019prague)
### 1. Role and Responsibilities of Session Co-Chair
As a session co-chair, you are a member of the technical committee of the conference. You work closely with the conference chair and conference co-chairs on your session. The process includes paper reviews and informing your colleagues about the conference in the lead-up to the conference, and conducting your session at the conference.
You inform and invite your engineering colleagues from your organization, industry, and academia to submit papers to your session and participate in the conference.
There are two co-chairs for each session. Please work closely with your partner to bring your session to success.
Both of session co-chairs will be involved in the review process and will work with the conference chair via the [EasyChair conference system](https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=istvs2019prague). Instructions for getting started with EasyChair are below.
The conference chair and conference co-chairs will manage the abstract submission process, including acceptance/rejection of abstracts. The session co-chairs will manage the reviewing process and acceptance/rejection of the papers that are submitted to their sessions.
You will both conduct the session. We suggest agreeing ahead of time on who will be the lead moderator at the conference session; the second co-chair can help by taking care of any distractions to the session that may arise. Your role is to enhance the presentations and discussion and not to summarize or dominate unnecessarily. You are free to question the speakers during the discussion period.
At the beginning of the session, a session co-chair should:
1. Announce the name of the session.
2. Read the following statement:
> The purpose of this session is to provide an open exchange of ideas. Remarks made by participants or members of the audience cannot be quoted or attributed to the individual or their company unless express permission has been granted by the individual and their company. Any record of remarks, discussion, or photographs may not be used unless express permission has been granted by the individual and their company.
3. Announce the name of the paper by the full title shown in the printed program.
4. Announce the name of the author and all co-authors, regardless of whether they are present at the session. Such introductions should be brief — name, title, affiliation. The name of the presenter should be announced after all others have been introduced.
5. Audience questions should follow the prepared presentation of each paper. As session chair, you must control this period carefully. Questions are taken orally. Session chairs should be prepared to ask questions of each of the presenters. One suggestion is to use comments and questions from the paper reviews to ask questions.\
Each speaker from the audience will be recognized by the author or you and asked to state their name and organization prior to making comments. When this is not possible, or when the question is particularly long, you or the author should summarize before answering. Discussion from the audience should be limited to five minutes for each paper. The session chair must be aware of the overall time and should terminate unproductive discussion.
6. Adhere to the start times indicated in the program. **If a presentation has been cancelled after the program is printed, do not move up other scheduled papers in the session.** (Attendees plan their days on the times listed in the program. Moving any presentation is a disservice to the attendees.) If a presentation cancels, either continue discussion of previous paper or adjourn until the next paper scheduled. Quality papers will assure the audience will return.
7. Following the discussion of the last paper, you may make a few brief comments to summarize the session. Please then thank the participants and the audience and adjourn the session.
8. You will participate and assist with the best paper award process before and during the conference. The conference chair will contact you to set up the nomination and voting process.
Thank you very much for your support of the conference!
### 2. Setting Up Your EasyChair Account
When you receive the email invitation for our 15th European-African Conference , clicking on the link will bring you to the EasyChair login window.
EasyChair Log in Screen — click to open Conference System in a new window
* **Existing EasyChair Accounts:** If you have used EasyChair for another conference in the past, your information should be saved in the EasyChair system. Use the “[Forgot your password? click here](https://easychair.org/account/forgot.cgi)” link if you need to reset your password. You will need to use the same email as in the past to log in; once you have logged in, you will be able to add another email address to your account.
* **New EasyChair Accounts:** If you are new to the EasyChair conference system, choose “create an account” link in the first line under the Log In for existing accounts. In the following window, first complete the Captcha security step, the next window will ask for your contact information, and then you’ll receive an email confirmation with a link that will allow you to complete setting up your account.\
*Note: The third window in the process (see below) gives detailed help if you do not receive the email confirmation.*\
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### 3. Updating Your EasyChair Account Information
When needed, use the options under EasyChair/My account to update your personal information, add an additional email address, change your email address, or change your user name.
### 4. Reviewing Your Paper Assignments
As abstracts, and then papers, are submitted, the conference chair will assign them to program committee members. Below are the main points of the interface you will interact with during the review process.
1. Use the menu item Reviews/My papers to see a list of the papers assigned to you:\
2. On the following screen, clicking on the blue icon under the "details" column will take you to the screen with detailed information about the paper, including a download link; the folder icon under the "paper" column will download the paper directly:\
3. When you are ready to review the paper, clicking on the green plus-sign icon under the "add new review" column will take you to the screen for submitting your review:
# Registration
ISTVS 2019 | September 8–11, 2019 | Prague, Czech Republic
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*UPDATE September 1, 2019*\
Conference registration is now closed
Thank you for your interest — please consider our next annual conference in September 2020 in Montreal. Visit [www.istvs.org](http://www.istvs.org) to sign up for our email newsletter.
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All participants and accompanying persons should register for the ISTVS 15th European-African Conference. Please read through the registration information to make your choices before you register at the bottom of the page.
### Full Conference Registration
Full conference registration includes:
* Access to all technical sessions and the conference exhibit hall
* One CD of the conference proceedings, provided at conference check in
* Ice Breaker Party, Sunday, September 8 — RSVP required during registration
* Banquet Dinner and continental breakfast, coffee breaks, and lunch on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
* Access and transportation to the Technical Tours
Note that the new pre-conference Professional Course on the Saturday preceding the conference requires a separate registration. See below.
### Conference Registration Rates
All prices are in EUR.
**Early Bird Registration before 22 July 2019**
> Author/Attendee/Presenter — ISTVS, IEEE and ISTRO Member €380\
> Author/Attendee/Presenter — Non-Member €455\
> Student — ISTVS Member €190\
> Student — Non-Member €220
**Late Registration after 22 July 2019**
> Author/Attendee/Presenter — ISTVS, IEEE and ISTRO Member €430\
> Author/Attendee/Presenter — Non-Member €505\
> Student — ISTVS Member €240\
> Student — Non-Member €270
**Important notes:**
* Guest person registration is needed. Use [item below](https://istvs-conf.squarespace.com/registration-2019#guest) to register your guest.
* Post-conference tour to Škoda Auto and CIIRC CTU on Thursday, Friday September 12, 13 is not included in your registration fee. Advanced registration is necessary. Please note: accommodation **is not included** in the post-conference tour price! Please extend your stay in the hotel until September 12.
### Additional/Optional Guest Registration
The conference welcomes accompanying guests. If you are bringing one or more guests, please select from the following options during the registration process below.
* **Ice Breaker Party**, our ever-popular conference kickoff.\
Sunday evening, September 8, €20 per guest.
* **Continental breakfast and lunch** on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.\
€40 day per guest.
* **Banquet Dinner,** the closing event of the conference. €60 per guest.
* **Technical Tour to** [**Tatra Trucks**](https://www.tatratrucks.com/)**,** Tuesday, September 10.\
Meals are included on this trip. €50 per guest for transportation.
* **Technical Tour to** [**Skoda Auto**](http://www.skoda-auto.com/company/visit), Thursday, September 12.\
€40 per guest for transportation. Meals are included on this trip.
* **Excursion Tour to** [**CIIRC CTU**](https://www.ciirc.cvut.cz/)**, the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics, and Cybernetics**, Friday, September 13. Attendance is free of charge; pre-registration is required.
### Payment for Registration
To register now online by credit card, use the registration choices at the bottom of this page to add conference attendees to your cart, then complete the checkout process here on the conference website with a valid credit card.
### On-Site Registration
Registration desk will be located in at the Hotel International. On your arrival, follow the signs to the conference. Acceptable payment for on-site registrations include credit card, check, or cash only.
### Mandatory Author Registration Requirements
ISTVS author registration policy requires that at least one author from each accepted (accepted with revisions) paper be registered and paid prior to the uploading of the final manuscript before July 15, 2019.
### Cancellations
Any cancellation request must be made in writing and submitted to the [Conference Chair](mailto:prikner@tf.czu.cz) no later than August 1, 2019. A processing fee will be applied to all refund requests. Refunds are NOT permitted on/after August 1, 2019.
# Submissions
ISTVS 2019 | September 8–11, 2019 | Prague, Czech Republic
## Call for Abstracts
All papers will be reviewed by the technical committee and those accepted will be included in the conference proceedings. We strongly encourage all authors to submit full papers, but will also accept oral presentations, for which only an abstract needs to be submitted.
### Technical tracks for paper submission
The conference includes the following thematic tracks:
1. Terramechanics, terrain/soil-wheel/tire/track interaction, modeling, and characterization
2. Advances in mobility, energy transfer, efficiency, ground vehicle dynamics, safety
3. Land locomotion, off-road and military vehicles, operation mud, snow, and ice
4. Agricultural, forestry, construction, and mining equipment and vehicle operations
5. Mobile robotics for ground applications, planet exploration and other environments
6. Innovative system designs for terrain and road-vehicle applications
7. Application of bionics engineering to terramechanics
8. Terramechanics-based AI techniques and controls for autonomous mobility
### Process
The submissions process has four steps:
1. Download abstract submission template below — use to prepare your abstract.
2. [Submit your abstract](https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=istvs2019prague) — on the EasyChair submission site, create an account and submit your abstract (submit abstract only at this stage)
3. Download submission templates below — use to prepare your paper, presentation, or poster.
4. [Submit your paper ](https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=istvs2019prague)— log in to the EasyChair system to update your submission there using the the “Update File” link to upload your paper, in PDF format.
{% file src="/files/qMHOaQOcbaUDtHEAlooS" %}
Abstract template
{% endfile %}
{% file src="/files/J7IlmLHVQGUe97Kja0A5" %}
Paper template
{% endfile %}
{% file src="/files/uLMBbO3o0krwPTWUkszr" %}
Presentation template
{% endfile %}
{% file src="/files/YEsN2ei1X3LeGOcqQknv" %}
Poster template
{% endfile %}
# Technical tour
ISTVS 2019 | September 8–11, 2019 | Prague, Czech Republic
ISTVS conferences have a long tradition of high-quality tours of professional interest, along with enlightening local tours for accompanying persons.
## TATRA
The 2019 15th ISTVS European-African’s Regional Conference will conduct a technical tour at the [**TATRA TRUCK a.s**](https://www.tatratrucks.com/) located at the Koprivnice, the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic.
Third oldest in the world TATRA has been manufacturing cars since 1897 and is the oldest automotive factory in Central Europe. The unique chassis concept has been continuously improved since 1923 – and to this day successfully imitated by no one.
Central load-carrying tube
In 1923 a chassis consisting of a central load-carrying tube, at the end of which a directly aircooled engine and transmission were installed with independently mounted swinging halfaxles, was introduced as a new product.
After 1945 all TATRA production was finally based in the Czech lands. The TATRA national enterprise (state-owned) was established and its designers perfectly elaborated the warperiod design of the first TATRA heavy truck with a directly air-cooled diesel engine of TATRA’s own original design.
The Koprivnice automotive maker, known under the TATRA brand, ranks among the oldest car and truck factories in the world and, with our more than 116-year continuous activity we have significantly influenced the automotive industry in the Czech Republic, as well as abroad. Since March 2013, the company TATRA TRUCKS owned by Czech shareholders and underwent restructuring. It is now under the leadership of CEO Radek Strouhal to continue to streamline production and sales growth.
#### TATRA Testing Grounds
This unique complex offers perfect conditions for function testing vehicles of all types, presenting them to customers or performing comparative tests (ISO 9001 standards). The centre offers external customers a whole range of services focusing on the verification of lifetime and reliability of products or their individual parts.
* The most extensive test centre in Central Europe.
* Intended for TATRA TRUCKS a.s. and commercial partners.
* The Test Centre includes the TATRA polygon, specialized workplaces and laboratories.
* The polygon consists of a set of special sections and roads.
### Technical Tour Additional Information
For registered conference attendees, the cost to attend the technical tour is included in your registration fee.
The technical tour to TATRA will take place on **Tuesday, September 10,** **2019**. Following an early breakfast, registered tour attendees will meet outside Prague International Hotel lobby at 6:30am and board buses for transportation to TATRA. Busses depart from Prague promptly at 6:45am.
## Accompanying Persons Tour
The conference has organized a guided sightseeing tour of the [ŠKODA AUTO](http://www.skoda-auto.com/company/visit) on Thursday, September 12 and [The Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics](https://www.ciirc.cvut.cz/) (CIIRC) on Friday, September 13. € 40 each guest for Skoda Tour, transportation included. Meals are included on this trip. Advanced registration is necessary, please sign up on the [Conference Registration Page](/registration). Attendance CIIRC is free of charge
### ŠKODA Factory Tour
In 1895, Václav Klement and Václav Laurin founded their business in Mladá Boleslav. This makes ŠKODA one of the oldest and most tradition-rich automobile brands in the world.
The first President of Czechoslovakia T. G.Masaryk with his brand-new ŠKODA Hispano-Suiza (1926)
Mladá Boleslav is a hive of technical development. A place where models are crafted and put into full-scale production. The city hosting the company’s production facilities is also home to its headquarters. ŠKODA currently manufactures the FABIA, RAPID and OCTAVIA models here.
Škoda faktory in Mladá Boleslav
### ŠKODA Museum
The Museum is a brand new showcase, a project designed to invite visitors to an exciting interactive multimedia journey though ŠKODA AUTO history, using a 1,800 sqm exhibition area in historical production halls to feature vehicles, films, photographs, documents etc.
The ŠKODA Museum collection contains about 340 items, primarily series-production passenger vehicles, rally cars, prototypes, tens of engines, four motorcycles and one bicycle — the bicycle, a Slavia of 1899, is the oldest exhibit. The first car produced by the company, the Voiturette, and the Ferat, a car that appeared in the Ferat Vampire movie, are part of the collection, too, and so is a fleet of 24 vehicles regularly appearing at car exhibitions (e.g. Techno-Classica Essen) and vintage car rallies (e.g. Sachsen Classic, Kitzbüheler Alpen Rally, Silvretta Classic, Oldtimer Bohemia Rally, etc.).
### The Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics in Prague
The Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics (CIIRC CTU) is an university institute of the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU). CIIRC CTU was founded on July 1, 2013, by the former rector of CTU prof. Václav Havlíček.
# Location
ISTVS 2019 | September 8–11, 2019 | Prague, Czech Republic
### About Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, the 14th largest city in the European Union and also the historical capital of Bohemia. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.5 million people.
Prague has been a political, cultural and economic centre of central Europe complete with a rich history. Founded during the Romanesque and flourishing by the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque eras. Prague is home to a number of famous cultural attractions, many of which survived the violence and destruction of 20th-century Europe. Main attractions include the Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, Old Town Square with the Prague astronomical clock, the Jewish Quarter, Petřín hill and Vyšehrad.
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### Conference Hotel
[Hotel International Prague](https://internationalprague.cz/)
> Koulova 15, 16000\
> Praha 6 - Czech Republic
>
> Tel.: +420 296 537 111\
> Fax: +420 296 537 266\
> E-mail:
**Room rates for conference participants:**\
100 EUR/ standard room for double or single use/ night
**Method of reservation:**\
The participants of the conference are responsible for their individual bookings via the hotel’s own online booking system at:\
»
The Hotel International Prague is located approximately 12 km from the Vaclav Havel Airport Prague. The hotel does not provide an airport shuttle service, but there are many ground transportation companies that can taxi/shuttle you to the hotel. Please visit the [Prague integrated transport website](http://spojeni.dpp.cz/ConnForm.aspx?cl=E5) for more information.
### Conference meeting rooms
Meeting rooms are pre-booked for ISTVS Conference participants.\
Meeting hall (150-200 participants) + 2 standard conference rooms (70 + 70 p) separated into 2 x 2 sections including Wifi, AV, Data Projection.
# Program committee
ISTVS 2019 | September 8–11, 2019 | Prague, Czech Republic
## Program committee
Thank you for your participation in the technical program of the 15th ISTVS European-African Conference, 8–11 September 2019. Our organization has been meeting since 1962 and our conferences are a rare chance to meet with colleagues with specialized expertise in soil-vehicle interactions.
Your contributions in the form of inviting participation from colleagues and reviewing abstracts and papers in the run-up to the conference — and then making your conference session a success — are the very heart of the benefits of ISTVS to all our members.
In the left column you'll find the dates and deadlines for the review process. Below you'll find:
1. [Roles and Responsibilities](https://istvs-conf.squarespace.com/program-committee-2019#roles) // A summary of the roles and responsibilities of a conference session co-chair.
2. [EasyChair Setup](https://istvs-conf.squarespace.com/program-committee-2019#easychair-setup) // Instructions on getting your account established with our conference system tool, EasyChair.
3. [Your EasyChair Account](https://istvs-conf.squarespace.com/program-committee-2019#easychair-personal) // Instructions for updating your personal account in EasyChair when needed.
4. [Reviewing Your Paper Assignments](https://istvs-conf.squarespace.com/program-committee-2019#reviewing) // Instructions for completing the paper reviews you have agreed to complete.
You might want to bookmark both this page and the long URL for our submissions page login — and you can always return to this site [conference.istvs.org](http://conference.istvs.org/) to find your way back, as well!
[Easychair Conference Prague 2019](https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=istvs2019prague)
### 1. Role and Responsibilities of Session Co-Chair
As a session co-chair, you are a member of the technical committee of the conference. You work closely with the conference chair and conference co-chairs on your session. The process includes paper reviews and informing your colleagues about the conference in the lead-up to the conference, and conducting your session at the conference.
You inform and invite your engineering colleagues from your organization, industry, and academia to submit papers to your session and participate in the conference.
There are two co-chairs for each session. Please work closely with your partner to bring your session to success.
Both of session co-chairs will be involved in the review process and will work with the conference chair via the [EasyChair conference system](https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=istvs2019prague). Instructions for getting started with EasyChair are below.
The conference chair and conference co-chairs will manage the abstract submission process, including acceptance/rejection of abstracts. The session co-chairs will manage the reviewing process and acceptance/rejection of the papers that are submitted to their sessions.
You will both conduct the session. We suggest agreeing ahead of time on who will be the lead moderator at the conference session; the second co-chair can help by taking care of any distractions to the session that may arise. Your role is to enhance the presentations and discussion and not to summarize or dominate unnecessarily. You are free to question the speakers during the discussion period.
At the beginning of the session, a session co-chair should:
1. Announce the name of the session.
2. Read the following statement:
> The purpose of this session is to provide an open exchange of ideas. Remarks made by participants or members of the audience cannot be quoted or attributed to the individual or their company unless express permission has been granted by the individual and their company. Any record of remarks, discussion, or photographs may not be used unless express permission has been granted by the individual and their company.
3. Announce the name of the paper by the full title shown in the printed program.
4. Announce the name of the author and all co-authors, regardless of whether they are present at the session. Such introductions should be brief — name, title, affiliation. The name of the presenter should be announced after all others have been introduced.
5. Audience questions should follow the prepared presentation of each paper. As session chair, you must control this period carefully. Questions are taken orally. Session chairs should be prepared to ask questions of each of the presenters. One suggestion is to use comments and questions from the paper reviews to ask questions.\
Each speaker from the audience will be recognized by the author or you and asked to state their name and organization prior to making comments. When this is not possible, or when the question is particularly long, you or the author should summarize before answering. Discussion from the audience should be limited to five minutes for each paper. The session chair must be aware of the overall time and should terminate unproductive discussion.
6. Adhere to the start times indicated in the program. **If a presentation has been cancelled after the program is printed, do not move up other scheduled papers in the session.** (Attendees plan their days on the times listed in the program. Moving any presentation is a disservice to the attendees.) If a presentation cancels, either continue discussion of previous paper or adjourn until the next paper scheduled. Quality papers will assure the audience will return.
7. Following the discussion of the last paper, you may make a few brief comments to summarize the session. Please then thank the participants and the audience and adjourn the session.
8. You will participate and assist with the best paper award process before and during the conference. The conference chair will contact you to set up the nomination and voting process.
Thank you very much for your support of the conference!
### 2. Setting Up Your EasyChair Account
When you receive the email invitation for our 15th European-African Conference , clicking on the link will bring you to the EasyChair login window.
* **Existing EasyChair Accounts:** If you have used EasyChair for another conference in the past, your information should be saved in the EasyChair system. Use the “[Forgot your password? click here](https://easychair.org/account/forgot.cgi)” link if you need to reset your password. You will need to use the same email as in the past to log in; once you have logged in, you will be able to add another email address to your account.
* **New EasyChair Accounts:** If you are new to the EasyChair conference system, choose “create an account” link in the first line under the Log In for existing accounts. In the following window, first complete the Captcha security step, the next window will ask for your contact information, and then you’ll receive an email confirmation with a link that will allow you to complete setting up your account.\
*Note: The third window in the process (see below) gives detailed help if you do not receive the email confirmation.*
### 3. Updating Your EasyChair Account Information
When needed, use the options under EasyChair/My account to update your personal information, add an additional email address, change your email address, or change your user name.
### 4. Reviewing Your Paper Assignments
As abstracts, and then papers, are submitted, the conference chair will assign them to program committee members. Below are the main points of the interface you will interact with during the review process.
1\. Use the menu item Reviews/My papers to see a list of the papers assigned to you:
2\. On the following screen, clicking on the blue icon under the "details" column will take you to the screen with detailed information about the paper, including a download link; the folder icon under the "paper" column will download the paper directly:
3\. When you are ready to review the paper, clicking on the green plus-sign icon under the “add new review” column will take you to the screen for submitting your review:
