Quantum Annealing Hyperparameter Analysis for Optimal Sensor Placement in Production Environments
Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: To increase efficiency in automotive manufacturing, newly produced vehicles can move autonomously from the production line to the distribution area. This requires an optimal placement of sensors to ensure full coverage while minimizing the number of sensors used. The underlying optimization problem poses a computational challenge due to its large-scale nature. Currently, classical solvers rely on heuristics, often yielding nonoptimal solutions for large instances, resulting in suboptimal sensor distributions and increased operational costs. We explore quantum computing methods that may outperform classical heuristics in the future. We implemented quantum annealing with D-Wave, transforming the problem into a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization formulation with one-hot and binary encoding. Hyperparameters like the penalty terms and the annealing time are optimized and the results are compared with default parameter settings. Our results demonstrate that quantum annealing is capable of solving instances derived from real-world scenarios. Through the use of decomposition techniques, we are able to scale the problem size further, bringing it closer to practical, industrial applicability. Through this work, we provide key insights into the importance of quantum annealing parametrization, demonstrating how quantum computing could contribute to cost-efficient, large-scale optimization problems once the hardware matures.
Authors: Nico Kraus, Marvin Erdmann, Alexander Kuzmany, Daniel Porawski, Jonas Stein
Language: English
Subfield: Artificial Intelligence
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4416874381