Chapter 4: Believe in and go looking for the possibilities of Annealing Machines!

We have described examples of problems that an annealing machine can solve efficiently. However, even when there is a problem around us and an opportunity to solve it using IT, accurately identifying the nature of the problem and selecting the right solver to solve the problem is quite advanced. Ideally, the person to use this should be someone who wants to experience the awesomeness of annealing machines or someone who wants to try out new technology, even though they hesitate to formulate optimization problems or use solvers. Ideally they should also be business people with budding ambition who think it is relevant to their work.

If you feel that the problem you are trying to solve may be unsuitable for this technique, it may be a sign of having taken steps toward knowing this technique and moving forward. If you feel like stopping to think about how to take the second step, please consider the following points first.

The actual issue of the case

If your problem is a problem with interaction, it is a chance to obtain a good result by representing it as a quadratic cost function and solving it with an annealing machine. If it is a continuous value problem, please consider redefining the elements discretely. If your problem does not have interaction, there may be a more suitable solver than an annealing machine.

The situation in which you do not have an issue but still would like to try annealing machines.

First, consider creating a problem with interaction, for example, a game, an imaginary city, an imaginary factory, or an imaginary machine. Once such an idea takes shape, there may be a company or municipality that wants to apply it for their business.

Next, if you are struggling because your problem is a continuous value, consider how to change it into discrete.

Annealing machines have become well known throughout the world, and there have been active efforts over the past few years to use them in business. To achieve dramatic results, however, it is necessary to know the nature of the problem well, try it repeatedly, combine several tricks, add pre-processing and/or post-processing, transform the business itself, and take all possible approaches. We would be more than happy if every stakeholder could touch and try the annealing machine through this website and feel more familiar with it.

Continuous or discrete is up to user's choice

If you want to know specific examples of solving combinatorial optimization problems with an annealing machine

What is a combinatorial optimization problem?

Combinatorial optimization will be explained by using two easy-to-understand examples of familiar combinatorial optimization problems. The importance of finding and using fast solution methods for combinatorial optimization processes in an IoT society will also be discussed.

Optimization of researcher shifts with consideration for COVID-19 infection control

In the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic, we present a use case in which an annealing machine is used to create shifts for researchers under constraints that take into account the risk of infection.

Optimize an insurer's reinsurance portfolio

This article presents a use case in which an annealing machine is used to formulate a reinsurance portfolio that leverages the vast amount of data held by an insurance company to address natural catastrophe risks.

If you want to know how to use an annealing machine

Easy-to-learn optimization flow

For beginners, this article explains the procedures and key points of the process of solving optimization problems with an annealing machine. The process involves dividing the problem into four stages: "organizing problem and defining problem," "formulation," "input data preparation," and "executing CMOS annealing machine".