# Deep reinforcement learning for the dynamic vehicle dispatching problem: An event-based approach

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.07508 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.07508/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 9 of its 60 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 13 Jul 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [Deep Reinforcement Learning with Double Q-learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1509.06461/) (2015)
- [End-to-End Training of Deep Visuomotor Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1504.00702/) (2015)
- [Deep Reinforcement Learning for Robotic Manipulation with Asynchronous Off-Policy Updates](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.00633/) (2016)
- [A Deep Value-network Based Approach for Multi-Driver Order Dispatching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.04493/) (2021)
- [Deep Reinforcement Learning for Multi-Driver Vehicle Dispatching and Repositioning Problem](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.11260/) (2019)
- [Safe Reinforcement Learning of Dynamic High-Dimensional Robotic Tasks: Navigation, Manipulation, Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.13308/) (2022)
- [Value Function is All You Need: A Unified Learning Framework for Ride Hailing Platforms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.08791/) (2021)
- [Taxi Dispatch with Real-Time Sensing Data in Metropolitan Areas: A Receding Horizon Control Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.04418/) (2016)
- [A Reinforcement Learning Approach to the Stochastic Cutting Stock Problem](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.09592/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Atomic Proximal Policy Optimization for Electric Robo-Taxi Dispatch and Charger Allocation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13392/) (2025)
- [OPTIC-ER: A Reinforcement Learning Framework for Real-Time Emergency Response and Equitable Resource Allocation in Underserved African Communities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.12943/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The dynamic vehicle dispatching problem corresponds to deciding which vehicles to assign to requests that arise stochastically over time and space. It emerges in diverse areas, such as in the assignment of trucks to loads to be transported; in emergency systems; and in ride-hailing services. In this paper, we model the problem as a semi-Markov decision process, which allows us to treat time as continuous. In this setting, decision epochs coincide with discrete events whose time intervals are random. We argue that an event-based approach substantially reduces the combinatorial complexity of the decision space and overcomes other limitations of discrete-time models often proposed in the literature. In order to test our approach, we develop a new discrete-event simulator and use double deep q-learning to train our decision agents. Numerical experiments are carried out in realistic scenarios using data from New York City. We compare the policies obtained through our approach with heuristic policies often used in practice. Results show that our policies exhibit better average waiting times, cancellation rates and total service times, with reduction in average waiting times of up to 50% relative to the other tested heuristic policies.