Recent trends in Markov decision processes

Abstract

Markov decision processes provide a rigorous mathematical framework for sequential decision making under uncertainly. In recent years. the field has seen explosive activity because of new application areas thrown up by advances in technology. These have not only stretched the limits of the existing theory but have also brought about novel methodologies to handle problems that do not fit the existing theoretical constructs. The present survey gives a short tutorial introduction to Markov decision processes and briefly outlines the thrust areas in this field