39. 【IEEE Paper】 Preparing the LaTeX Environment for an IEEE Control Systems Paper

tags: LaTeX,IEEE,ControlEngineering,PaperWriting,VSCode

📝 Introduction

When writing an IEEE Control Systems paper (e.g., TCST),
many authors get stuck before the technical content itself — at the LaTeX stage.

Typical problems include:

• Figures floating unpredictably
• Tables breaking in two-column layout
• Appendices turning into chaos
• Author biographies not appearing at the end

In this article, instead of discussing the technical content of the paper,
I focus on the following experiment:

“Building a LaTeX structure that can survive all the way to the end
for an IEEE Control Systems paper.”

This article is a 🧪 work-in-progress log of that experiment.

🤔 Why I fixed the LaTeX structure first

Control Systems papers usually require all of the following at once:

• Two-column layout (IEEEtran)
• Equations (PID / state-space)
• FSM and block diagrams
• Tables (experimental conditions, KPIs)
• Appendices
• Author biography

In other words:

If you try to add these later, something will almost certainly break.

So in this experiment:

• The content was allowed to be provisional
• The results were allowed to be weak

Instead, the priority was to prepare:

A LaTeX structure that would not collapse before reaching the end.

🛠 Working environment

• Editor: VS Code
• Class: IEEEtran (journal)
• Build: Local LaTeX environment

The actual working state looked like this:

🗂 Initial directory structure

Rather than writing everything in a single file,
I started with a modular structure from the beginning.

2025_HUMANOID_TCST/
├─ main.tex
├─ abstract.tex
├─ intro.tex
├─ related.tex
├─ system.tex
├─ results.tex
├─ discussion.tex
├─ conclusion.tex
├─ refs.bib
└─ figures/

Key points:

• main.tex acts as the control tower
• All content is included via \input{}
• Appendices and the biography are assumed from the start

⛔ Do not “finish” at this stage

At this stage, it is important:

• Not to complete the PDF yet
• Not to explain results
• Not to explain theory

The only question to answer is:

“Can this structure survive all the way to the end?”

🎯 Goal of this experiment

At this point, the goals were:

• The IEEEtran two-column layout does not break
• Appendices and the biography coexist correctly
• Adding figures, tables, and equations does not destroy the structure

The paper content itself can be replaced later without pain.

🔜 Next article

Next, I will publish:

• The minimal main.tex skeleton
• Package selection rationale
• A finish-ready structure including appendices and biography

👉 Minimal LaTeX structure PoC for IEEE Control Systems papers

✅ Summary

• Many papers fail not because of content, but because of structure
• Creating a LaTeX PoC first is surprisingly effective
• This article is a work log of that experiment

Next, I will present the structure itself.