Multimodal Container Planning: a QUBO Formulation and Implementation on a Quantum Annealer

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how to formulate multimodal container planning as a QUBO problem and implement it on a D-Wave quantum annealer, showcasing the potential of quantum computing for complex logistics optimization.

Contribution

It introduces a novel QUBO formulation for multimodal container planning and details its practical implementation on a quantum annealer, advancing quantum optimization applications.

Findings

Successful mapping of container planning to QUBO

Implementation on D-Wave quantum annealer demonstrated feasibility

Potential for quantum computing to solve real-world logistics problems

Abstract

Quantum computing is developing fast. Real world applications are within reach in the coming years. One of the most promising areas is combinatorial optimisation, where the Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimisation (QUBO) problem formulation is used to get good approximate solutions. Both the universal quantum computer as the quantum annealer can handle this kind of problems well. In this paper, we present an application on multimodal container planning. We show how to map this problem to a QUBO problem formulation and how the practical implementation can be done on the quantum annealer produced by D-Wave Systems.