This repository contains the code for the Master's Thesis project "Quantum Algorithms for Optimizing Urban Transportation" developed by Bruno Rosendo. The thesis can be found at Repositório Aberto.
Feel free to use this code as a reference for your projects and experiments, but please keep the licence intact.
To use the solvers, you must choose your preferred solver (D-Wave, Qiskit or Classical) and set the parameters for the routing problem. You can then solve and visualize or save the results.
Currently, the project supports four routing problem variations: Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), Capacitated VRP (CVRP), Multi-Capacitated VRP (MCVRP) and Ride Pooling Problem (RPP). You can find details about each problem in the thesis document.
Every solver has a common set of parameters that will define the routing problem at hand. These parameters are in the table:
Parameter | Type | Description | Default |
---|---|---|---|
num_vehicles |
int | Number of vehicles in the problem. | - |
capacities |
int | list[int] | None | Capacity for the vehicles. You can also specify for each or use None for infinite capacity. | - |
locations |
list[tuple[float, float]] | List of coordinates representing the locations in the problem. | - |
trips |
list[tuple[int, int, int]] | List of trips in the format (src, dest, demand). In the case of RPP, trips must be specified, and dest must be used. In other formulations, the demand of 1 is assumed if a location is missing and dest is ignored. | - |
use_rpp |
bool | Whether to use the RPP variation. | - |
track_progress |
bool | Whether to track progress by printing logs every iteration of the algorithm. | True |
cost_function |
Callable | Cost function used to generate a distance matrix. See below for details. | Manhattan Distance |
distance_matrix |
list[list[float]] | Optional parameter to set the distance matrix directly. | None |
location_names |
list[str] | Optional list of location names used for display. | None |
distance_unit |
DistanceUnit | Unit used for distance/cost. Used for proper visualization. | Meters |
The DWaveSolver
interacts with D-Wave's Leap cloud provider and is this project's most recommended quantum solver.
To set it up, you need to authenticate yourself in one of three ways:
- Copy your API token from the platform and create a
.env
file in the project's root with the lineDWAVE_API_TOKEN=<token>
. - Create a
DWAVE_API_TOKEN
environment variable under your Python (virtual) environment with your API token. - Install the dwave-ocean-sdk package and authenticate there.
This solver has the following parameters that can be configured:
Parameter | Type | Description | Default |
---|---|---|---|
simplify |
bool | Whether to simplify the problem by removing redundant variables. | True |
sampler |
Sampler | The sampler for the annealing. It can be a classical or quantum sampler. | ExactCQMSolver |
embedding |
Embedding | Embedding class used to embed the problem into the quantum hardware. | EmbeddingComposite |
embed_bqm |
bool | If using a BQM sampler, locally embed the problem before sampling. | True |
num_reads |
int | If using a BQM sampler, sets a fixed number of reads. | None |
time_limit |
int | Optionally sets a time limit for the annealing process in seconds. If not specified, the sampler usually has its default value. | None |
embedding_timeout |
int | Optionally sets a time limit for the embedding process in seconds. If not specified, the sampler usually has the default value of 1000 seconds. | None |
The QiskitSolver
interacts with the IBM Quantum cloud platform.
To set it up, you need to authenticate yourself in one of two ways:
- Copy your API token from the platform and create a
.env
file in the project's root with the lineIBM_TOKEN=<token>
. - Create an
IBM_TOKEN
environment variable under your Python (virtual) environment with your API token.
This solver has the following parameters that can be configured:
Parameter | Type | Description | Default |
---|---|---|---|
classical_solver |
bool | Whether to use a classical optimizer (CPLEX) instead of a quantum optimizer. | False |
simplify |
bool | Whether to simplify the problem by removing redundant variables. | True |
sampler |
Sampler | The sampler used in the quantum optimizer. It can either be a simulator or a real quantum computer. | Sampler |
classical_optimizer |
Optimizer | Classical optimizer used to decide new parameters in between QAOA iterations. | COBYLA |
warm_start |
bool | Whether to run QAOA with a warm start. | False |
pre_solver |
OptimizationAlgorithm | Classical optimizer used to pre-solve the problem if warm start is used. | CplexOptimizer |
The ClassicalSolver
uses the Google OR-Tools library to solve the routing problem classically. This is a great way to test your inputs or compare the quantum solvers with a well-known classical solver.
This solver does not require any authentication, as it is a local solver. It has the following parameters that can be configured:
Parameter | Type | Description | Default |
---|---|---|---|
solution_strategy |
FirstSolution (enum) | First solution strategy. The method used to find an initial solution. | Automatic |
local_search_metaheuristic |
LocalSearch (enum) | Local search strategy (metaheuristic) used by the solver. | Automatic |
distance_global_span_cost_coefficient |
int | The coefficient is multiplied by each vehicle’s travelled distance and is helpful to distribute distance between routes. | 1 |
time_limit_seconds |
int | Maximum execution time in seconds. | 10 |
max_distance_capacity |
int | Maximum capacity for the distance dimension within OR-Tools. This doesn't need to be changed unless some overflow error happens. | 90000 |
A cost function generates a distance matrix from the locations list. The default cost function is the Manhattan distance, but you can define your own cost function by creating a function that takes a list of coordinates and returns the matrix. For example:
from src.model.VRPSolution import DistanceUnit
def manhattan_distance(
locations: list[tuple[int, int]], unit: DistanceUnit = DistanceUnit.METERS
) -> list[list[float]]:
"""
Compute the Manhattan distance between all locations.
"""
return [
[
abs(from_location[0] - to_location[0])
+ abs(from_location[1] - to_location[1])
for to_location in locations
]
for from_location in locations
]
The project currently supports the following distance units: manhattan_distance
, euclidean_distance
, haversine_distance
and distance_api
.
The last one, distance_api
, is a particular cost function that uses Google's Distance Matrix API to calculate the distance between locations. This is useful for real-world problems where the distance matrix is unknown beforehand. To use it, you must set the GOOGLE_API_KEY
environment variable with your API key by adding it to the .env
file or setting it in your (virtual) environment.
After defining the problem and choosing the solver, you can run the solver with the solve()
method. This will return a VRPSolution
object. You can then visualize the solution in the browser with the display()
method, print it to the console using the print()
method, or save it to a file with the save_json()
method.
Loading a solution from a JSON file using the VRPSolution from_json()
static method is also possible. This is useful for comparing solutions or visualizing them later.
If you want to contribute to this project, follow the instructions below to set up your development environment. Feel free to open issues or pull requests with questions or suggestions.
- Python 3.10+
- pip3
- All the dependencies listed in the
requirements.txt
file, installed via pip
The entry point for the application is usually the src/main.py
file. You can also use other scripts under src/scripts/
or create your own. To run them, execute Python with the desired script.
We use the Black formatter for all Python code. There is no specific linter, as Black is an opinionated formatter that enforces a consistent style.
data/
- Data files used in the project.inputs/
- Benchmark inputs from Best-Known Solutions datasets.Porto/
- Data extracted from Porto's public transportation system.
results/
- Results from the VRP solvers, including JSON files and HTML pages.src/
- Main source code directory.model/
- All classes and functions related to the VRP models and adapters.qiskit_algorithms/
- Modified version of the qiskit-algorithms used in the project.scripts/
- Scripts for running experiments, generating plots, etc.solvers/
- Quantum and classical solvers for the VRP.