A Markov Decision Process Model for an Online Empty Container Repositioning Problem in a Two-port Fixed Route

In this paper, we propose a Markov Decision Process model for an empty repositioning problem in a two-port system. We consider two cases. The first case is the offline case, where demand information is assumed as a random variable with known distribution. The second case is online case where demand information is partially known. In both cases, we figure out the optimal controlling policies. The second case enables the possibility to conduct an online optimization taking the advantages of real-time information.