UAV path planning in multi-target mission scenarios presents complex optimization challenges, particularly when considering constraints such as energy consumption and time efficiency. This paper proposes a quantum computing-driven approach using the QUBO model, integrated with a coherent Ising machine (CIM) on an optical quantum platform, to optimize UAV path planning. By modeling the path planning problem as a QUBO formulation and utilizing quantum heuristic algorithms for optimization, the proposed method overcomes the bottlenecks of traditional heuristic algorithms in terms of computational efficiency and convergence speed. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach significantly outperforms traditional algorithms such as Tabu Search and Simulated Annealing, particularly as the number of target points increases. This method provides a new approach for applying quantum computing to UAV path planning, promoting the practical use of quantum technology in industrial applications.
UAV path planning in multi-target mission scenarios presents complex optimization challenges, particularly when considering constraints such as energy consumption and time efficiency. This paper proposes a quantum computing-driven approach using the QUBO model, integrated with a coherent Ising machine (CIM) on an optical quantum platform, to optimize UAV path planning. By modeling the path planning problem as a QUBO formulation and utilizing quantum heuristic algorithms for optimization, the proposed method overcomes the bottlenecks of traditional heuristic algorithms in terms of computational efficiency and convergence speed. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach significantly outperforms traditional algorithms such as Tabu Search and Simulated Annealing, particularly as the number of target points increases. This method provides a new approach for applying quantum computing to UAV path planning, promoting the practical use of quantum technology in industrial applications.
This paper addresses the multi-UAV cooperative path planning problem, a typical combinatorial optimization challenge, by systematically investigating a quantum annealing-based computational approach. Two QUBO modeling strategies are proposed: one defines inter-node transitions, while the other introduces a temporal dimension, both transforming the Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem into a Hamiltonian form solvable via quantum annealing. Experimental validation on a 10-node scenario, comparing results from a coherent Ising machine and the ant colony algorithm, demonstrates that the proposed models achieve solution quality comparable to the classical method. Specifically, the edge-variable model yields shorter total path distance, whereas the time-step model exhibits superior load-balancing performance. The findings provide feasible insights and methodological support for applying quantum computing to combinatorial optimization scenarios such as UAV formation control and logistics scheduling.
With the rapid advancement of smart agriculture, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have become indispensable for efficient coverage and path planning in grid-mapped agricultural fields. However, optimizing UAV flight paths in large-scale environments remains a complex Nondeterministic Polynomial-time (NP)-hard problem. Traditional path planning methods are often constrained by local optima, limited scalability, and slow convergence, which significantly restrict their effectiveness in solving large-scale problems. To address these limitations, this paper proposes a novel optimization framework utilizing a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)-parallelized Ising solver. Our method mimics the operational principles of quantum annealing on GPU hardware, enabling rapid search for the minimum-energy state of Ising models. Unlike physical quantum devices, which are often constrained by the number of qubits, our approach leverages the Fixstars Amplify (FA) platform to perform parallel annealing on highly parallelized GPUs. This enables the simultaneous evaluation of thousands of potential path candidates and vast state transitions. By leveraging large-scale parallel processing, this framework's core strength lies in minimizing computation time even as the problem scale increases. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed method consistently identifies superior flight paths while maintaining stable computational performance compared with the genetic algorithm and simulated annealing method.
Mission planning often involves optimising the use of ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) assets in order to achieve a set of mission objectives within allowed parameters subject to constraints. The missions of interest here, involve routing multiple UAVs visiting multiple targets, utilising sensors to capture data relating to each target. Finding such solutions is often an NP-Hard problem and cannot be solved efficiently on classical computers. Furthermore, during the mission new constraints and objectives may arise, requiring a new solution to be computed within a short time period. To achieve this we investigate near term quantum algorithms that have the potential to offer speed-ups against current classical methods. We demonstrate how a large family of these problems can be formulated as a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP) and then converted to a Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimisation (QUBO). The formulation provided is versatile and can be adapted for many different constraints with clear qubit scaling provided. We discuss the results of solving the QUBO formulation using commercial quantum annealers and compare the solutions to current edge classical solvers. We also analyse the results from solving the QUBO using Quantum Approximate Optimisation Algorithms (QAOA) and discuss their results. Finally, we also provide efficient methods to encode to the problem into the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) formalism, where we have tailored the ansatz to the problem making efficient use of the qubits available.
In recent years, with the development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology and its widespread application in military, logistics, agriculture, and other fields, the problem of UAV swarm trajectory planning has received extensive attention. Traditional optimization algorithms such as simulated annealing, genetic algorithms, and particle swarm optimization can achieve good results in some cases. However, when dealing with larger and more complex UAV swarm tasks, they often face issues such as low computational efficiency and getting stuck in local optima. Quantum annealing, which has the unique advantage of quantum tunneling, can effectively avoid local optima. Therefore, this study proposes a UAV swarm trajectory planning algorithm based on quantum annealing. The trajectory planning problem is converted into a Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problem. Using a two-stage processing strategy, the quantum annealing method clusters the task points and simulates the trajectory for each category, effectively reducing time complexity. Results show that quantum annealing has a higher probability of finding better paths than simulated annealing, demonstrating a better ability to escape the local optima problem. Additionally, the study considers four common scenarios that UAV swarms encounter during missions, designs corresponding dynamic task allocation schemes and modifies the objective function and constraints of quantum annealing. Results indicate that the UAV swarm trajectory planning algorithm can handle common scenarios effectively, ensuring that the UAV swarm can flexibly respond and efficiently complete tasks collaboratively.
Multi-objective combinatorial optimization in wireless communication networks is a challenging task, particularly for large-scale and diverse topologies. Recent advances in quantum computing offer promising solutions for such problems. Coherent Ising Machines (CIM), a quantum-inspired algorithm, leverages quantum properties of coherent light, enabling faster convergence to the ground state. This paper applies CIM to multiobjective routing optimization in wireless multi-hop networks. We formulate the routing problem as a Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problem, and map it onto an Ising model, allowing CIM to solve it. CIM demonstrates strong scalability across diverse network topologies without requiring topology-specific adjustments, overcoming the limitations of traditional quantum algorithms like Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) and Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE). Our results show that CIM provides feasible and near-optimal solutions for networks containing hundreds of nodes and thousands of edges. Additionally, a complexity analysis highlights CIM's increasing efficiency as network size grows.
Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) has gained widespread popularity in recent years due to its ability to increase data rates, improve signal quality, and provide better coverage in challenging environments. In this paper, we investigate the MIMO beam selection (MBS) problem, which is proven to be NP-hard and computationally intractable. To deal with this problem, quantum computing that can provide faster and more efficient solutions to large-scale combinatorial optimization is considered. MBS is formulated in a quadratic unbounded binary optimization form and solved with Coherent Ising Machine (CIM) physical machine. We compare the performance of our solution with two classic heuristics, simulated annealing and Tabu search. The results demonstrate an average performance improvement by a factor of 261.23 and 20.6, respectively, which shows that CIM-based solution performs significantly better in terms of selecting the optimal subset of beams. This work shows great promise for practical 5G operation and promotes the application of quantum computing in solving computationally hard problems in communication.