Project CANOPUS, Airbus Defence and Space
We looked at the use of quantum annealing to solve the airport gate assignment problem (AGAP). This problem seeks the ideal flight-to-gate assignments at airports. A good assignment minimizes the walking distances to and from the plane as well as between connecting flights. But there are usually many additional conditions to consider. Over the course of a day, there will be delays and other changes to the plan. The calculation of AGAP is so complex that it takes all night for today’s hardware to optimize the assignment. We implemented AGAP on a quantum annealer as well as with hybrid approaches and evaluated the possibilities on today’s quantum hardware as well as the expected hardware requirements to solve AGAP for large airports.
