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PROBLEM SOLVING BY SEARCH

Dr. Nguyen Quoc Tuan

Department of Network and Information

Systems
Faculty of Information Technology
 Contents
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 Formulating problems as search problems

 Searching for Solutions
 Formulating problems as search problems
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 Example 1: Romania
 Formulating problems as search problems
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 Example 1: You’re in Arad, Romania, and you need to

get to Bucharest as quickly as possible to catch your
flight.
 Formulate problem
◼ States: Various cities
◼ Operators: Drive between cities
 Formulate goal
◼ Be in Bucharest before flight leaves
 Find solution
◼ Actual sequence of cities from Arad to Bucharest
◼ Minimize driving distance/time
 Formulating problems as search problems
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 Problem description <{S}, S0, {SG}, {O}, {g}>

 {S} – cities (ci)
 S0 – Arad
 SG – Bucharest
◼ G(S) – Is the current state (S) Bucharest?
 {O}: { ci → cj, for some i and j }
 gij
◼ Driving distance between ci and cj?
◼ Time to drive from ci to cj?
◼ 1?
 Formulating problems as search problems
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 State-space description < {S}, S0, {SG}, {O}, {g} >

 S: Possible states
 S0: Initial state of the agent

 SG: Goal state(s)

◼ Or equivalently, a goal test G(S)
 O: Operators O: {S} => {S}
◼ Describes the possible actions of the agent
 g: Path cost function, assigns a cost to a path/action
 Formulating problems as search problems
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 State-space diagrams
 State-space
description can be represented by a state-
space diagram, which shows
◼ States (incl. initial and goal)
◼ Operators/actions (state transitions)
◼ Path costs
 Formulating problems as search problems
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 Example 2: 8-Puzzle

 States: Various configurations of the puzzle

 Operators: Movements of the blank
 Goal test: Goal configuration
 Path cost: Each move costs 1
 Formulating problems as search problems
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 Example 3: Missionaries and Cannibals

Problem: Three missionaries and three cannibals are on
one side of a river, along with a boat that can hold one
or two people. Find a way to get everyone to the other
side, without ever leaving a group of missionaries in one
place outnumbered by the cannibals in that place

 States:
 Operators:
 Goal test:
 Path cost: ?
 Formulating problems as search problems
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 Example 3: Missionaries and Cannibals

 Formulating problems as search problems
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 Example 3: Missionaries and Cannibals

 State-space description < {S}, S0, {SG}, {O}, {g} >
◼ S: { ({0,1,2,3} {0,1,2,3} {0,1}) }
◼ S0: {3 3 1}
◼ SG: {0 0 0}
◼ O: { (x y b) → (x’ y’ b’) }
◼ g: 1
 Formulating problems as search problems
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 Example 3: Missionaries and Cannibals

 Searching for Solutions
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 Finding a solution is done by searching through the state space

 While maintaining a set of partial solution sequences
 The search strategy determines which states should be
expanded first
 Expand a state = Applying the operators to the current state and
thereby generating a new set of successor states
 Conceptually, the search process builds up a search tree that
is superimposed over the state space
 Root node of the tree “Initial state”
 Leaves of the tree “States to be expanded (or expanded to null)”
 At each step, the search algorithm chooses a leaf to expand
 Search strategy
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 Uninformed (blind) search

 Can only distinguish goal state from non-goal state
 Informed (heuristic) search
 Can evaluate states
 Search strategy
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 Blind search strategies

 Breadth-first search
 Depth-first search
 Depth-limited search
 …
 Breadth-first search
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function Breath_First_Search
{
1. Initialize list L using the initial state of problem
2. loop do
if L empty then return failure;
choose a node u at the front of L;
if u is goal state then return the corresponding
solution
else for each node v adjacent to node u do
{insert v into the queue of L; father(v)=u};
}
 Breadth-first search
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 Example 1:
 Initial state: A; Goal state: H
 Breadth-first search
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 Example 1:
 Depth first search
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function Depth_First_Search
{
1. Initialize list L using the initial state of problem
2. loop do
if L empty then return failure;
choose a node u at the front of L;
if u is goal state then return the corresponding
solution
else for each node v adjacent to node u do
{insert v into the front of L; father(v)=u};
}
 Depth first search
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 Example 1:
 Blind search
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 Example 2:
 Initial state: A; Goal state: G
 Blind search
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 Example 2:
 Blind search
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 Example 3:
 Initial state: A; Goal state: G
 Search strategy
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 Informed (heuristic) search

 Best-First Search
◼ Breath First Search + heuristic function
 Hill-Climbing Search
◼ Depth First Search + heuristic function
 Heuristic function
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 The heuristic function h(N)  0 estimates the cost to go from

STATE(N) to a goal state.
 Example

5 8 1 2 3
4 2 1 4 5 6
7 3 6 7 8
STATE(N) Goal state
 h1(N) = number of misplaced numbered tiles = 6
 h2(N) = sum of the (Manhattan) distance of every numbered tile to its goal
position.
h2(N) = 2 + 3 + 0 + 1 + 3 + 0 + 3 + 1 = 13
 Best-First Search
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 Example 1: Start State : A; Goal State: B

 Best-First Search
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function Best_First_Search
{
1. Initialize list L using the initial state of problem
2. loop do
if L empty then return failure;
choose a node u at the front of L;
if u is goal state then return the corresponding solution
else for each node v adjacent to node u do
{insert v into of L so that L is sorted in ascending order of
the evaluation function; father(v)=u};
}
 Best-First Search
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 Hill-Climbing Search
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function Hill_Climbing_Search
{
1. Initialize list L using the initial state of problem
2. loop do
if L empty then return failure;
choose a node u at the front of L;
if u is goal state then return the corresponding solution
else for each node v adjacent to node u do
{insert v into of L1 so that L1 is sorted in ascending order of the
evaluation function; father(v)=u
Move list L1 to the beginning of list L
};
}
 Hill-Climbing Search
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 Exercise
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