Shira Wein, Anna Serbina, Jiyuan Ji, Nathan Wolf, Jason DeGraaff, Prajakta Kini, Maria Leonor Pacheco. Proceedings of the 64th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers). 2026.

Autonomous robots are essential for navigating and collecting data in hazardous environments where human intervention is impractical. Current methods often result in inefficiencies, missed high-quality imagery, and inadequate coverage in critical areas such as environmental monitoring, disaster response, and medical diagnostics. The absence of intelligent viewpoint selection leads to redundant data and poor image quality, limiting robotic effectiveness. This research proposes a framework that utilizes reinforcement learning and information-theoretic approaches to optimize viewpoint selection, aiming to enhance data collection efficiency and image quality while ensuring safety. This work has the potential to transform industries reliant on precise visual data and significantly improve medical robotics, enabling better diagnostics and patient care.