Quantum technology has the potential to scale computation as compared to their classical counterpart. Quantum annealing (QA) is a meta-heuristic to optimize an objective function especially when the feasible set is discrete with many local minimums, based on some principles in quantum physics. In certain circumstances, an exponential speedup has been shown. In particular, it has the potential to be a critical component to tackle urban challenges as they are combinatorial in nature.

Conceptual Overview

We use Fujitsu’s Digital Annealing (DA), a quantum inspired technology that simulates quantum annealing, to solve complex combinatorial optimization problems. The Digital Platform Experiments team combines ideas from optimization and quantum physics to design hybrid algorithm to solve relevant urban problems.

• We study reformulation of classical optimization models to make them suitable problems for the DA framework.
• We design hybrid algorithm, combining Digital Annealing with some classical optimization models to scale up our combinatorial problem solving capabilities including routing and scheduling problems.
• We study methodologies to implement solutions derived from CoE projects onto DA to solve practical use cases faced in Singapore.