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A task allocation algorithm based on reinforcement learning in spatio-temporal crowdsourcing

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Abstract

With the pervasiveness of dynamic task allocation in sharing economy applications, online bipartite graph matching has attracted more and more research attention. In sharing economy applications, crowdsourcing platforms need to allocate tasks to workers dynamically. Previous studies have low allocation utility. To increase the allocation utility of the Spatio-temporal crowdsourcing system, this paper proposes a dynamic delay bipartite matching(DDBM) problem, and designs Value Based Task Allocation(VBTA) and Policy Gradient Based Task Allocation(PGTA) frameworks respectively. According to the current state, VBTA and PGTA could enhance the allocation utility by selecting appropriate thresholds. The convergence of the algorithm is proved. Extensive experimental results on two real datasets demonstrate that the proposed algorithms are superior to the existing algorithms in effectiveness and efficiency.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants No.61472095.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Technology, Harbin Engineering University, 145 Nantong Street, Harbin, 150000, Heilongjiang, China

    Bingxu Zhao, Hongbin Dong & Tingwei Pan

  2. School of Computer and Control Engineering, Yantai University, 30 Qingquan Road, Yantai, 264000, Shandong, China

    Yingjie Wang

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  1. Bingxu Zhao
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  2. Hongbin Dong
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Correspondence to Hongbin Dong.

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Zhao, B., Dong, H., Wang, Y. et al. A task allocation algorithm based on reinforcement learning in spatio-temporal crowdsourcing. Appl Intell 53, 13452–13469 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10489-022-04151-6

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