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Air cargo optimization solution ready for freighters in D-Wave quantum computers.

AIR CARGO OPTIMIZATION AT UNPRECEDENTED LEVELS WITH QUANTUM-SOUTH’S SOLUTION ON D-WAVE QUANTUM COMPUTERS

Quantum-South releases an air cargo optimization application running on D-Wave quantum platforms capable of optimizing the load of containers and ULDs in full freighters and passengers’ aircrafts. The optimization includes complex targets like revenue, priority, center of gravity, shear force and volume, beyond industry standard weight and balance restrictions.

The announcement was made today in the Inside Quantum Technology (IQT) Conference in the San Diego Convention Center. The solution aims to bring efficiency in logistics, helping companies to improve revenues and reduce costs based on customizable parameters. It has been tested on D-Wave quantum computers through AWS Braket showing very short execution times. 

Quantum-South team has been working in container load optimization for air cargo since the Airbus Quantum Computing Challenge in 2019 where it became one of the global finalists.

Airbus identified this problem as one of the most challenging in the aerospace industry.

Quantum-South developments have been focused on using quantum algorithms to address the problem, leveraging quantum theory to run complex calculations in computers that can explore more solutions than traditional computing models.

During the Inside Quantum Technology Conference, Dr. Rafael Sotelo, Co-Founder of Quantum-South, conducted the session “Quantum Applications in Logistics: Air and Maritime Cargo”. In his talk, Dr. Sotelo explained the problem of addressing several packages to be transported with the objective to identify the optimal selection of the ones that maximizes key parameters like revenue, priority and volume associated to the containers and ULDs (Unit Loading Devices) while respecting restrictions, such as maximum weight and length, center of gravity, shear, and the shape of the fuselage. Optimizing the location of the center of mass has a significant impact on fuel consumption and environmental protection. “Given the enormous increase in the number of possible combinations as the number of packages increases, the problem poses a serious challenge to be solved by classical means” explained Dr. Sotelo.

Quantum-South uses a technology called “quantum annealing” which is a quantum-computing method that attempts to determine an optimal solution from many potential solutions. The D-Wave platform finds optimal solutions in a short time for the cargo operations. The conventional systems benchmarks are not able to find the same level of solutions or directly are not able to compute in a reasonable time.

The air cargo optimization software based in quantum computing: Quantum-South is ready to work together with air cargo companies in proofs of concept (PoC) for a real business scenario, involving air cargo operations, using determined source-destination locations with an interesting complexity and different Airbus and Boeing freighter models. The source-destination locations can have multiple weekly flights for the same freighter where containers of different nature and priority could be arranged. This solution has already brought the interest of several companies in the Americas, Europe and Asia with whom Quantum-South started potential POC discussions.

The software is flexible to air cargo scenarios as it can be adapted to business requirements/restrictions and incorporated in the optimization criteria. It can be applied to any model of cargo aircraft and the load of cargo in passenger’s aircrafts.

The D-Wave quantum computers bring the first platform to run a full-size freighter optimization. Quantum-South’s R&D team is working in other quantum solutions aiming to optimize operations in Air and Maritime Cargo, including bin packing problem to optimize the load of ULDs and containers, and take-off trajectories for fuel optimization.