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This paper deals with the unconstrained and constrained cases for continuous-time Markov decision processes under the finite-horizon expected total cost criterion. The state space is denumerable and the transition and cost rates are allowed…

In the quest to improve services, companies offer customers the opportunity to interact with agents through contact centers, where the communication is mainly text-based. This has become one of the favorite channels of communication with…

We consider the problem of assigning tasks efficiently to a set of workers that can exhaust themselves as a result of processing tasks. If a worker is exhausted, it will take a longer time to recover. To model efficiency of workers with…

In the context of Markov decision processes running in continuous time, one of the most intriguing challenges is the efficient approximation of finite horizon reachability objectives. A multitude of sophisticated model checking algorithms…

In control system networks, reconfiguration of the controller when agents are leaving or joining the network is still an open challenge, in particular when operation constraints that depend on each agent's behavior must be met. Drawing our…

Policy evaluation is a fundamental component of the development and deployment pipeline for robotic policies. In modern manipulation systems, this problem is particularly challenging: rewards are often sparse, task progression of evaluation…

We consider infinite-horizon $\gamma$-discounted Markov Decision Processes, for which it is known that there exists a stationary optimal policy. We consider the algorithm Value Iteration and the sequence of policies $\pi_1,...,\pi_k$ it…

We study a two-stage tandem service queue attended by two servers. Each job-server pair must complete both service phases together, with the server unable to begin a new job until the current one is fully processed after two stages.…

We study a make-to-order system with a finite set of customers. Production is stochastic with a nonlinear dependence between the ordered quantity and the production rate. Customers may have to queue until their turn arrives, and therefore…

A current trend in networking and cloud computing is to provide compute resources over widely dispersed places exemplified by initiatives like Network Function Virtualisation. This paves the way for a widespread service deployment and can…

Model predictive control (MPC) schemes are commonly designed with fixed, i.e., time-invariant, horizon length and cost functions. If no stabilizing terminal ingredients are used, stability can be guaranteed via a sufficiently long horizon.…

In a call center, staffing decisions must be made before the call arrival rate is known with certainty. Then, once the arrival rate becomes known, the call center may be over-staffed, in which case staff are being paid to be idle, or…

Call centers are service networks in which agents provide telephone-based services. An important part of call center operations is represented by service durations. In recent statistical analysis of real data, it has been noticed that the…

Mobile-edge computing (MEC) emerges as a promising paradigm to improve the quality of computation experience for mobile devices. Nevertheless, the design of computation task scheduling policies for MEC systems inevitably encounters a…

Emotional stress often has a significant effect on the working performance of staff, but this effect is commonly neglected in existing staff scheduling methods. We study a call-center staff scheduling problem, which considers the evolution…

We study Markov decision processes with Polish state and action spaces. The action space is state dependent and is not necessarily compact. We first establish the existence of an optimal ergodic occupation measure using only a near-monotone…

We analyze the time-dependent behavior of an $M/M/c$ priority queue having two customer classes, class-dependent service rates, and preemptive priority between classes. More particularly, we develop a method that determines the Laplace…

In this paper a stochastic model of a call center with a two-level architecture is analyzed. A first-level pool of operators answers calls, identifies, and handles non-urgent calls. A call classified as urgent has to be transferred to…

Motivated by the operational problems in click and collect systems, such as curbside pickup programs, we study a joint admission control and capacity allocation problem. We consider a system where arriving customers have preferred service…

As a main step in the numerical solution of control problems in continuous time, the controlled process is approximated by sequences of controlled Markov chains, thus discretising time and space. A new feature in this context is to allow…