Solving the dynamic ambulance relocation and dispatching problem using approximate dynamic programming

approximate dynamic programming, stochastic optimization Emergency service providers are supposed to locate ambulances such that in case of emergency patients can be reached in a time-efficient manner. Two fundamental decisions and choices need to be made real-time. First of all immediately after a request emerges an appropriate vehicle needs to be dispatched and send to the requests’ site. After having served a request the vehicle needs to be relocated to its next waiting location. We are going to propose a model and solve the underlying optimization problem using Approximate Dynamic Pro-gramming (ADP), an emerging and powerful tool for solving stochastic and dynamic problems typically arising in the field of operations re-search. Empirical tests based on real data from the city of Vienna indi-cate that by deviating from the classical dispatching rules the average response time can be can be decreased from 4.60 to 4.01 minutes, whic