UCT is a very simple idea that works surprisingly well across very diverse domains. Can't emphasize its generality enough, you can throw different problems at it and it can give you decent (may not be the best) result without using any additional domain knowledge.

It is also very easy to work with, you can easily tweak the algorithm and add heuristics for your specific domains.

Also relevant:

UCT applied to partially observable game (Poc-man) http://papers.nips.cc/paper/4031-monte-carlo-planning-in-lar...

Another approach for Monte-Carlo planning http://papers.nips.cc/paper/5189-despot-online-pomdp-plannin...