A Survey on Applications of Reinforcement Learning in Spatial Resource Allocation

Abstract: The challenge of spatial resource allocation is pervasive across various domains such as transportation, industry, and daily life. As the scale of real-world issues continues to expand and demands for real-time solutions increase, traditional algorithms face significant computational pressures, struggling to achieve optimal efficiency and real-time capabilities. In recent years, with the escalating computational power of computers, the remarkable achievements of reinforcement learning in domains like Go and robotics have demonstrated its robust learning and sequential decision-making capabilities. Given these advancements, there has been a surge in novel methods employing reinforcement learning to tackle spatial resource allocation problems. These methods exhibit advantages such as rapid solution convergence and strong model generalization abilities, offering a new perspective on resolving spatial resource allocation problems. Therefore, this paper aims to summarize and review recent theoretical methods and applied research utilizing reinforcement learning to address spatial resource allocation problems. It provides a summary and comprehensive overview of its fundamental principles, related methodologies, and applied research. Additionally, it highlights several unresolved issues that urgently require attention in this direction for the future.