Solving Logistic-Oriented Bin Packing Problems Through a Hybrid Quantum-Classical Approach
This work addresses practical challenges in logistics for corporations, but it is incremental as it extends an existing framework.
The paper tackles real-world logistic bin packing problems with heterogeneous bins, multiple dimensions, item-bin associations, and delivery priorities, using the Q4RealBPP hybrid quantum-classical framework, and tests its ability on real-world instances.
The Bin Packing Problem is a classic problem with wide industrial applicability. In fact, the efficient packing of items into bins is one of the toughest challenges in many logistic corporations and is a critical issue for reducing storage costs or improving vehicle space allocation. In this work, we resort to our previously published quantum-classical framework known as Q4RealBPP, and elaborate on the solving of real-world oriented instances of the Bin Packing Problem. With this purpose, this paper gravitates on the following characteristics: i) the existence of heterogeneous bins, ii) the extension of the framework to solve not only three-dimensional, but also one- and two-dimensional instances of the problem, iii) requirements for item-bin associations, and iv) delivery priorities. All these features have been tested in this paper, as well as the ability of Q4RealBPP to solve real-world oriented instances.