Applying quantum approximate optimization to the heterogeneous vehicle routing problem

Licentiate thesis, 2022

Quantum computing offers new heuristics for combinatorial problems. With small- and intermediate-scale quantum devices becoming available, it is possible to implement and test these heuristics on small-size problems. A candidate for such combinatorial problems is the heterogeneous vehicle routing problem (HVRP): the problem of finding the optimal set of routes, given a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles with varying loading capacities, to deliver goods to a given set of customers. This licentiate thesis is an extended introduction to the accompanying paper, which consists of a study of a new formulation of the HVRP applicable to both quantum annealers and programmable noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices.