Solving Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz and Column Generation

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Huang, Wei-hao, Matsuyama, Hiromichi, Yamashiro, Yu
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Huang, Wei-hao
Matsuyama, Hiromichi
Yamashiro, Yu
author_facet Huang, Wei-hao
Matsuyama, Hiromichi
Yamashiro, Yu
contents This study proposes a hybrid quantum-classical approach to solving the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) by integrating the Column Generation (CG) method with the Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz (QAOAnsatz). The CG method divides the CVRP into the reduced master problem, which finds the best combination of the routes under the route set, and one or more subproblems, which generate the routes that would be beneficial to add to the route set. This method is iteratively refined by adding new routes identified via subproblems and continues until no improving route can be found. We leverage the QAOAnsatz to solve the subproblems. Our algorithm restricts the search space by designing the QAOAnsatz mixer Hamiltonian to enforce one-hot constraints. Moreover, to handle capacity constraints in QAOAnsatz, we employ an Augmented Lagrangian-inspired method that obviates the need for additional slack variables, reducing the required number of qubits. Experimental results on small-scale CVRP instances (up to 6 customers) show that QAOAnsatz converges more quickly to optimal routes than the standard QAOA approach, demonstrating the potential of this hybrid framework in tackling real-world logistical optimization problems on near-term quantum hardware.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_17051
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Solving Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz and Column Generation
Huang, Wei-hao
Matsuyama, Hiromichi
Yamashiro, Yu
Quantum Physics
This study proposes a hybrid quantum-classical approach to solving the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) by integrating the Column Generation (CG) method with the Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz (QAOAnsatz). The CG method divides the CVRP into the reduced master problem, which finds the best combination of the routes under the route set, and one or more subproblems, which generate the routes that would be beneficial to add to the route set. This method is iteratively refined by adding new routes identified via subproblems and continues until no improving route can be found. We leverage the QAOAnsatz to solve the subproblems. Our algorithm restricts the search space by designing the QAOAnsatz mixer Hamiltonian to enforce one-hot constraints. Moreover, to handle capacity constraints in QAOAnsatz, we employ an Augmented Lagrangian-inspired method that obviates the need for additional slack variables, reducing the required number of qubits. Experimental results on small-scale CVRP instances (up to 6 customers) show that QAOAnsatz converges more quickly to optimal routes than the standard QAOA approach, demonstrating the potential of this hybrid framework in tackling real-world logistical optimization problems on near-term quantum hardware.
title Solving Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz and Column Generation
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.17051