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Spinning plates and squad systems- policies for bi-directional restless bandits.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>03/2006
<mark>Journal</mark>Advances in Applied Probability
Issue number1
Volume38
Number of pages21
Pages (from-to)95-115
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

This paper concerns two families of Markov decision problem that fall within the family of (bi-directional) restless bandits, an intractable class of decision processes introduced by Whittle. The spinning plates problem concerns the optimal management of a portfolio of reward-generating assets whose yields grow with investment but otherwise tend to decline. In the model of asset exploitation called the squad system, the yield from an asset tends to decline when it is used but will recover when the asset is at rest. In all cases, simply stated conditions are given that guarantee indexability of the problem, together with conditions necessary and sufficient for its strict indexability. The index heuristics for asset activation that emerge from the analysis are assessed numerically and found to perform very strongly.

Bibliographic note

RAE_import_type : Journal article RAE_uoa_type : Statistics and Operational Research