The idea of dynamic programming as applied to multi-stage decisions

Abstract

The idea of dynamic programming was conceived by Bellman and developed by Howard [Ho 2], amongst others, into a method of analysis for discrete problems which is particularly useful in dealing with numerical data. Its scope is not confined to the applications discussed in this book. A brief, general introduction to the subject is provided by Van der Veen [Ve 1] and by Kaufmann/Faure [Ka 2]. Bellman’s principle of optimality plays a fundamental part in this: a problem which is insoluble in itself and involves an object function of n variables, can be overcome by solving n problems, each with one variable, one after another.