PROBLEM REDUCTION ( AND - OR graphs - AO * Algorithm)

When a problem can be divided into a set of sub problems, where each sub problem can be solved separately and a combination of
these will be a solution, AND-OR graphs or AND - OR trees are used for representing the solution. The decomposition of the problem
or problem reduction generates AND arcs. One AND are may point to any number of successor nodes. All these must be solved so
that the arc will rise to many arcs, indicating several possible solutions. Hence the graph is known as AND - OR instead of AND.
Figure shows an AND - OR graph.

An algorithm to find a solution in an AND - OR graph must handle AND area appropriately. A* algorithm can not search AND - OR
graphs efficiently. This can be understand from the give figure.

FIGURE : AND - OR graph

In figure (a) the top node A has been expanded producing two area one leading to B and leading to C-D . the numbers at each node
represent the value of f ' at that node (cost of getting to the goal state from current state). For simplicity, it is assumed that every
operation(i.e. applying a rule) has unit cost, i.e., each are with single successor will have a cost of 1 and each of its components. With
the available information till now , it appears that C is the most promising node to expand since its f ' = 3 , the lowest but going
through B would be better since to use C we must also use D' and the cost would be 9(3+4+1+1). Through B it would be 6(5+1).

Thus the choice of the next node to expand depends not only n a value but also on whether that node is part of the current best path
form the initial mode. Figure (b) makes this clearer. In figure the node G appears to be the most promising node, with the least f '
value. But G is not on the current beat path, since to use G we must use GH with a cost of 9 and again this demands that arcs be used
(with a cost of 27). The path from A through B, E-F is better with a total cost of (17+1=18). Thus we can see that to search an AND-
OR graph, the following three things must be done.
1. traverse the graph starting at the initial node and following the current best path, and accumulate the set of nodes that are on the
path and have not yet been expanded.

2. Pick one of these unexpanded nodes and expand it. Add its successors to the graph and computer f ' (cost of the remaining distance)
for each of them.

3. Change the f ' estimate of the newly expanded node to reflect the new information produced by its successors. Propagate this
change backward through the graph. Decide which of the current best path.
The propagation of revised cost estimation backward is in the tree is not necessary in A* algorithm. This is because in AO* algorithm
expanded nodes are re-examined so that the current best path can be selected. The working of AO* algorithm is illustrated in figure as
follows:
The algorithm for performing a heuristic search of an AND - OR graph is given below. Unlike A* algorithm which used two lists
OPEN and CLOSED, the AO* algorithm uses a single structure G. G represents the part of the search graph generated so far. Each
node in G points down to its immediate successors and up to its immediate predecessors, and also has with it the value of h' cost of a
path from itself to a set of solution nodes. The cost of getting from the start nodes to the current node "g" is not stored as in the A*
algorithm. This is because it is not possible to compute a single such value since there may be many paths to the same state. In AO*
algorithm serves as the estimate of goodness of a node. Also a there should value called FUTILITY is used. The estimated cost of a
solution is greater than FUTILITY then the search is abandoned as too expansive to be practical.
For representing above graphs AO* algorithm is as follows
The algorithm for performing a heuristic search of an AND - OR graph is given below. Unlike A* algorithm which used two lists
OPEN and CLOSED, the AO* algorithm uses a single structure G. G represents the part of the search graph generated so far. Each
node in G points down to its immediate successors and up to its immediate predecessors, and also has with it the value of h' cost of a
path from itself to a set of solution nodes. The cost of getting from the start nodes to the current node "g" is not stored as in the A*
algorithm. This is because it is not possible to compute a single such value since there may be many paths to the same state. In AO*
algorithm serves as the estimate of goodness of a node. Also a there should value called FUTILITY is used. The estimated cost of a
solution is greater than FUTILITY then the search is abandoned as too expansive to be practical.
For representing above graphs AO* algorithm is as follows

AO* ALGORITHM:
1. Let G consists only to the node representing the initial state call this node INTT. Compute h' (INIT).
2. Until INIT is labeled SOLVED or hi (INIT) becomes greater than FUTILITY, repeat the following procedure.
(I)     Trace the marked arcs from INIT and select an unbounded node NODE.
(II)  Generate the successors of NODE . if there are no successors then assign FUTILITY as  h' (NODE). This means that NODE is
not solvable. If there are successors then for each one called SUCCESSOR, that is not also an ancester of NODE do the following
            (a) add SUCCESSOR to graph G
            (b) if successor is not a terminal node, mark it solved and assign zero to its h ' value.
            (c) If successor is not a terminal node, compute it h' value.
(III) propagate the newly discovered information up the graph by doing the following . let S be a set of nodes that have been marked
SOLVED. Initialize S to NODE. Until S is empty repeat  the following procedure;

           (a) select a node from S call if CURRENT and remove it from S.
          (b) compute h' of each of the arcs emerging from CURRENT , Assign minimum h' to CURRENT.
          (c) Mark the minimum cost path a s the best out of CURRENT.
          (d) Mark CURRENT SOLVED if all of the nodes connected to it through the new marked are have been labeled SOLVED.
          (e) If CURRENT has been marked SOLVED or its h ' has just changed, its new status must  be propagate backwards up the
graph . hence all the ancestors of CURRENT are added to S.
(Refered From Artificial Intelligence TMH)
AO*  Search Procedure.

1. Place the start node on open.

2. Using the search tree, compute the most promising solution tree TP .
3. Select node n that is both on open and a part of tp, remove n from open and place it no closed.
4. If n is a goal node, label n as solved. If the start node is solved, exit with success where tp is the solution tree, remove all nodes
from open with a solved ancestor.

5. If n is not solvable node, label n as unsolvable. If the start node is labeled as unsolvable, exit with failure. Remove all nodes from
open ,with unsolvable ancestors.
6. Otherwise, expand node n generating all of its successor compute the cost of for each newly generated node and place all such
nodes on open.
7. Go back to step(2)
Note: AO* will always find minimum cost solution.
CONSTRAINT SATISFACTION:-

Many problems in AI can be considered as problems of constraint satisfaction, in which the goal state satisfies a given set of
constraint. constraint satisfaction problems can be solved by using any of the search strategies. The general form of the constraint
satisfaction procedure is as follows:
Until a complete solution is found or until all paths have led to lead ends, do
1.select an unexpanded node of the search graph.
2. Apply the constraint inference rules to the selected node to generate all possible new constraints.
3. If the set of constraints contains a contradiction, then report that this path is a dead end.
4. If the set of constraints describes a complete solution then report success.
5. If neither a constraint nor a complete solution has been found then apply the rules to generate new partial solutions. Insert these
partial solutions into the search graph.
Example: consider the crypt arithmetic problems.
    SEND
+ MORE
----------
MONEY
----------
Assign decimal digit to each of the letters in such a way that the answer to the problem is correct to the same letter occurs more than
once , it must be assign the same digit each time . no two different letters may be assigned the same digit. Consider the crypt
arithmetic problem.
   SEND
+ MORE
-----------
MONEY
-----------
CONSTRAINTS:-
1. no two digit can be assigned to same letter.
2. only single digit number can be assign to a letter.
1. no two letters can be assigned same digit.
2. Assumption can be made at various levels such that they do not contradict each other.
3. The problem can be decomposed into secured constraints. A constraint satisfaction approach may be used.
4. Any of search techniques may be used.
5. Backtracking may be performed as applicable us applied search techniques.
6. Rule of arithmetic may be followed.
Initial state of problem.
D=?
E=?
Y=?
N=?
R=?
O=?
S=?
M=?
C1=?
C2=?
C1 ,C 2, C3 stands for the carry variables respectively.
Goal State: the digits to the letters must be assigned in such a manner so that the sum is satisfied.
Solution Process:
We are following the depth-first method to solve the problem.
1. initial guess m=1 because the sum of two single digits can generate at most a carry '1'.
2. When n=1 o=0 or 1 because the largest single digit number added to m=1 can generate the sum of either 0 or 1 depend on the carry
received from the carry sum. By this we conclude that o=0 because m is already 1 hence we cannot assign same digit another
letter(rule no.)
3. We have m=1 and o=0 to get o=0 we have s=8 or 9, again depending on the carry received from the earlier sum.
The same process can be repeated further. The problem has to be composed into various constraints. And each constraints is to be
satisfied by guessing the possible digits that the letters can be assumed that the initial guess has been already made . rest of the process
is being shown in the form of a tree, using depth-first search for the clear understandability of the solution process.

            D>6(Controduction)

Constraint Satisfaction
 The general problem is to find a solution that satisfies a set of constraints.
 heuristics used not to estimate the distance to the goal but to decide what node to expand nest.
  Examples of this technique are design problem, labelling graphs, robot path planning and cryptarithmetic puzzles
(see last year).
Algorithm:
1. Propagate available constraints:
o Open all objects that must be assigned values in a complete solution.
o Repeat until inconsistency or all objects assigned valid valid values:
 select an object and strengthen as much as possible the set of constraints that apply to object.
 If set of constraints different from previous set then open all objects that share any of these
constraints.
 remove selected object.
2. If union of constraints discovered above defines a solution return solution.
3. If union of constraints discovered above defines a contradiction return failure

3
1. Make a guess in order to proceed. Repeat until a solution is found or all possible solutions exhausted:
o select an object with a no assigned value and try to strengthen its constraints.
o recursively invoke constraint satisfaction with the current set of constraints plus the selected strengthening
constraint.

Means-Ends Analysis
 Allows both backward and forward searching.
 This means we could solve major parts of a problem first and then return to smaller problems when assembling the
final solution.
 GPS was the first AI program to exploit means-ends analysis.
 STRIPS (A robot Planner) is an advanced problem solver that incorporates means-ends analysis and other
techniques.
Very loosely the means-ends analysis algorithm is:
1. Until the goal is reached or no more procedures are available:
o Describe the current state, the goal state and the differences between the two.
o Use the difference the describe a procedure that will hopefully get nearer to goal.
o Use the procedure and update current state.
2. If goal is reached then success otherwise fail.

MEANS - ENDS ANALYSIS:-

Most of the search strategies either reason forward of backward however, often a mixture o the two directions is appropriate.
Such mixed strategy would make it possible to solve the major parts of problem first and solve the smaller problems the arise
when combining them together. Such a technique is called "Means - Ends Analysis".
The means -ends analysis process centers around finding the difference between current state and goal state. The problem
space of means - ends analysis has an initial state and one or more goal state, a set of operate with a set of preconditions their
application and difference functions that computes the difference between two state a(i) and s(j). A problem is solved using
means - ends analysis by

1. Computing the current state s1 to a goal state s2 and computing their difference D12.
2. Satisfy the preconditions for some recommended operator op is selected, then to reduce the difference D12.
3. The operator OP is applied if possible. If not the current state is solved a goal is created and means- ends analysis is applied
recursively to reduce the sub goal.
4. If the sub goal is solved state is restored and work resumed on the original problem.
( the first AI program to use means - ends analysis was the GPS General problem solver)
means- ends analysis I useful for many human planning activities. Consider the example of planing for an office worker.
Suppose we have a different table of three rules:
1. If in out current state we are hungry , and in our goal state we are not hungry , then either the "visit hotel" or "visit
Canteen " operator is recommended.
2. If our current state we do not have money , and if in your goal state we have money, then the "Visit our bank" operator or
the "Visit secretary" operator is recommended.
3. If our current state we do not know where something is , need in our goal state we do know, then either the "visit office
enquiry" , "visit secretary" or "visit co worker " operator is recommended.

Means End Analysis

The method relies on rules that change the initial state to a current state and enable goal states to be achieved. The rules that are used
consist of two parts left hand sides that are prerequisites and right hand sides that indicate the changes to be introduced. The data
structure used consists of a difference table. We shall observe how a household robot moves a desk holding two objects upon it from
one room to another. The desk can only be moved if clear and the two objects must be placed upon the desk when it is in the other
room. Each rule has a prerequisite and this indicates that the desk cannot be moved until it is clear. Various aspects of position must be
considered before the goal state can be achieved. This topic was fully explored by Newell & Simon in their GPS general problem
solver in the nineteen sixties.
In means end analysis we consider a household robot whose task is to move a desk with two objects upon it from one room to the
next. The task is achieved using differences between the current state and the goal state and applying the required pre requisites shown
in fig 3.15 etc.
The main difference between the start and final states is the position of the desk.See fig 3.17
This can be reduced by using PUSH or CARRY and in each case the prerequisites must be met.
PUSH is chosen as the other choices lead to dead ends; PUSH has 4 prerequisites;
the robot must be at the desk, the desk must be clear , we can ignore desk is heavy and robot's arm is clear.
WALK brings the robot to the correct spot. PICKUP and PUTDOWN are used to clear the desk.
Now the two states the current state and goal state are close together in terms of differences and the only thing left is to place the
objects back on to the desk.
The robot must be brought to hold the objects before they can be placed upon the table.
The progress is mapped out in fig 3.18 and the whole algorithm is expressed.
GENERAL PROBLEM SOLVER GPS
The GPS program was written by Newell Simon and Shaw in 1960 and improved versions were created in 1967 and 1969. It is a truly
unified multipurpose program and is not an amalgam of specialised programs. Examples of the problems it could solve are:
Missionaries and Cannibals
Towers of Hanoi
Father and Sons
Three Coins
Seven Bridges of Konisberg
Water Jug
Farmer Goose Fox and Grain
Monkey and Bananas
Mathematical Integrals.
FEATURES OF GPS
1 GPS applies itself to subproblems. It is therefore recursive hierarchical and displays action centred control.
2 GPS achieves goals by finding differences and it uses procedures to find the differences and so it may be thought of as constituting
an object centred control.
3 GPS is itself a procedure that finds procedures for doing things such as reducing differences. There is no way of stating or showing
that things cannot be done.
4 GPS involves no statement about resource allocation among procedures, there is no parallelism nor is a procedure stopped before it
succeeds or gives up.
5 GPS has the goal of reducing the difference betwen a current state and a goal state. GPS therefore uses means end analysis.
6 GPS moves forward iteratively searching for a goal. GPS therefore involves search the particular kind being depth first search with
backup.
7 GPS creates subgoals and therefore involves problem reduction.
8 GPS uses planning by deferring action on details until after the overall solution path is established.
9 GPS cannot answer this question
' how is it possible to maintain coherence and consensus among parallel procedures?'
and so is not involved in parallelism.
10 GPS cannot say anything about the following as its list of procedures is fixed. ' how is it possible for a problem solver to spawn
new procedures as problem solving proceeds?'
MEANS END ANALYSIS
GPS works by considering the present position as the current state and the objective as the goal state. It considers the differences
between these two states and finds ways of reducing the difference between them. The current state embraces all the facts known
about the present state inclusding a specification of the current problem. Consider the following examples.
1 In a travel problem the current state and the goal state are defined by physical locations.
2 In a robot assembly problem the current state and the goal state are defined by the raw materials and the finished product
respectively.
3 In a geometry problem the current state is all that is known both general and specific. The goal state is also all that is known together
with the problem set.
AUNT AGATHA AND ROBBIE THE ROBOT
Let us consider another problem in greater detail
Aunt Agatha lives in Los Angeles. Robbie a robot lives in Boston and Aunt Agatha invites Robbie to stay with her in Los Angeles.
How can Robbie make the journey from Boston to Los Angeles as there are many ways of travelling. He has to make decisions as to
which is the best means of travellling at each stage in the journey. To make it easier for Robbie there is a difference procedure table
available and this is shown on the attached sheet. Following Robbie's path
a To go from Boston to Los Angeles involves travelling over 1000 miles and this means using an aeroplane. But to use an aeroplane
you must be at an airport and Robbie is at home. To travel from home to an airport is a new adjacent goal.
b How can Robbie do this, since the distance is less than 100 but more than 1 mile Robbie drives in a car. Being at the airport is not
being at the plane but the distance between the carpark and the plane is less than 1 mile so Robbie walks.
c Now at Los Angeles Robbie has to leave the airport and reach his aunt's house. The distance is greater than 1 mile so he chooses to
use a car. However this creates a problem as the car is in Boston. Going back to Boston to get the car will make the difference larger
rather than smaller so his option is ignored for the time being. There is an alternative and that involves a taxi. Robbie chooses this but
must first walk to the taxirank.
d Robbie is now at the kerb of Aunt Agatha's house and walks in.
GPS does Forward Chaining not Backward chaining
Since GPS works from the current state towards the goal state, GPS is said to be doing forward chaining. Ordinary forward chaining
GPS involves a commitment to one kind of search depthfirst search. This is illustrated by the following procedure decription:
To reach a goal state from a current state using GPS
1 Form a one-state queue consisting of the current state.
2 Until the queue is empty or the goal state has been reached, call the first state in the queue the current state:
2a If there is no untried procedure for reducing the difference between the current state and the goal state remove the first state from
the queue
2b Otherwise select a procedure for reducing the difference:
(i) If the procedure's preconditions are not satisfied attempt to satisfy them using GPS with the preconditions defining a new goal
state.
(ii) If the preconditions are satisfied use the procedure and put the new state at the front of the queue.
3 If the goal state has been found announce success otherwise announce failure.
Review of Problems Undertaken
Missionaries and Cannibals
There are 3 missionaries and 3 Cannibals and a boat on one side of a river. How can the 6 people get across the river in the boat
subject to the following constraints
1 There must be at least one person in the boat
2 There cannot be more than two people in the boat at any time
3 There cannot be more cannibals than missionaries on either bank otherwise the cannibals will eat the missionaries. Note there is a
misere version in which we cannot have more missionaries than cannibals on any bank otherwise the missionaries will convert the
cannibals.
GPS generated 57 goals and took 969 seconds.
Father and sons
Basically similar except father weighs 200 and each son 100 boat can take 200 units only how can all three get across. GPS generated
33 goals.
Three coins
Three coins lie on a table in the order tails, heads ,tails. In precisely three moves make them face either all heads or all tails, GPS
generated 10 goals.

Seven Bridges of Konigsberg 

The problem is set in Konigsberg and asks can someone walk a complete circuit arriving back at the starting point and yet only
crossing each bridge once.
After generating 71 goals GPS gave up because its memory was full GPS should have crecognised that it was impossible. In 1736

Euler invented graph theory to prove that it was impossible . 

In proving that the problem could not be solved Euler focussed on the degree of the nodes of the graph observing that a node could be
even or odd. An even degree node has an even number of arcs joining it to neighbouring nodes. Likewise an odd degree node.With the
exception of its beginning and end nodes the desired walk would have to leave each node exactly as often as it entered it. Nodes of
odd degree could be used only as the beginning or ending of the walk since such nodes could be crossed only a certain number of
times before they proved a dead end. The traveller could not exit the node without using a previously travelled arc.Euler noted that
unless a graph contained either exactly zero or two nodes of odd degree the walk was impossible. If there were two odd degree nodes
the walk could begin at one and end at the other. If there were zero the walk could begin and end at the same node.
Monkey Puzzle
Problem
The monkey is in a closed room in which there is a small table. There is a bunch of bananas hanging from the ceiling but the monkey
cannot reach them. Assuming that the monkey can move the table and if the monkey stands on the table the monkey can reach the
bananas establish a method to instruct the monkey on how to capture the bananas.
1 Task Environment
A Information
set of places { on the floor, place1, place2, under the bananas}
B Operators
CLIMB
pretest the monkey is in the table's place
move the monkey becomes on the table
WALK
variable x is the set of places
move the monkey's place becomes x.
MOVE TABLE
variable x is the set of places
pretest the monkey's place is in the set of places
the monkey's place is in the table's place
moves the monkey's place becomes x.
the table's place becomes x
GET BANANAS
pretest the table's place is under the bananas
the monkey's place is on the table
move the contents of the monkey's hand is the bananas
C Differences
d1 is the monkey's place
d2 is the table's place
d3 is the contents of the monkey's hand
D Differences ordering
d3 is harder to reduce than d2 which is harder to reduce than d1.
Specific Task
Goal transform intial object to desired object
Objects
Initial the monkey's place is place1 the table's place is place2
the contents of the monkey's hand is empty
Desired the contents of the monkey's hand is the bananas
Constraint Satisfaction
The general problem is to find a solution that satisfies a set of constraints. Examples of this technique involve design problems and
robot technology. Problems involve the movement of robot arms and the design of suitable joints and include the study of the
movements of the robot's components in a variety of situations. The idea of this approach is that the range of solutions can be
dramatically reduced by the constraints and so the search for the solution path is accelerated. An example of this approach occurs in
Cryptarithmetic puzzles an example of which is given on the next page.
Cryptarithmetic leads into constraint analysis. Here the problem is to allocate unique digits to each of the letters in the problem so
that the summation appears to be correct. Looking at the problem we can see that the letters are
SENDMORY
and the digits 0-9 must be allocated on a one to one mapping to each of the above letters.
The leading digits must not be zero thus S and M are not zero.
We can assert that M is either one or zero as two digits can at most add up to 19, allowing for a previous carry. But no two letters can
be the same so the maximum is actually eighteen.
However M is not zero from the first statement and so M=1.
Assuming that the carries from the least significant digits to the most significant are called
C1, C2, C3, C4 then S + M + C3 must be greater than 9 to generate a carry and M=1,
thus S + C3 is greater than 8 and as C3 is 0 or 1 then S is 8 or 9. Since S + M + C3 is 10 or 11 and M is 1 then O is 0 or 1 but as M
knocks out the digit 1, then O is 0.
N cannot have the same value as E and since O is 0 then N=E+C2. Thus C2 = 1 and N = E + 1.
The addition now becomes
S E N D later S E N D
+10RE10RE
10NEY10NEY
C4 C3 C2 C1 1 C3 1 C1
In the thousands colum S + 1 + C3 gives ten thus S= 8 or 9.
In the tens colum C1 + E + 1 + R = 10 + E, so R + C1 = 9 thus R is 8 or 9, hence E<8
Therefore C3 = 0, S= 9 R =8
later 9 E N D finally 9 5 6 7
+108E1085
10NEY10652
1 0 1 C1 1 0 1 1
In the tens colum E+1+8+C1 = 10 +E thus C1 = 1. Both E and N are <8.
E= 6, N =7 leads to D=5 Y=1 a conflict. E= 5 N =6 leads to D = 7 and Y =2
The best constraints are set up by finding the term that affects most relations that is the letter that occurs in most equations.E appears
three times and N twice and E and N are related by a simple equation. By choosing sensible guesses for E and N we can proceed to
produce values for the other letters. Sometimes conflicts arise because a letter may be assigned a value that has already been given to
another letter. This produces additional constraints and leads to a solution.Proceeding in this way we generate the tree and the solution
follows.
Why are these topics important?
 Search and knowledge representation form the basis for many AI techniques.
 We have studied search in some detail (last year).
 We will study Knowledge representation next.
Here are a few pointers as to where specific search methods are used in this course.
Knowledge Representation
-- Best first search (A*), Constraint satisfaction and means-ends analysis searches used in Rule based and knowledge.
Uncertain reasoning
-- Depth first, breadth first and constraint satisfaction methods used.
Distributed reasoning
-- Best first search (A*) and Constraint satisfaction.
Planning
-- Best first search (A*), AO*, Constraint satisfaction and means-ends analysis.
Understanding
-- Constraint satisfaction.
Learning
-- Constraint satisfaction, Means-ends analysis.
Common sense
-- Constraint satisfaction.
Vision
-- depth first, breadth first, heuristics, simulated annealing, constraint satisfaction are all used extensively.
Robotics
-- Constraint satisfaction and means-ends analysis used in planning robot paths.