State-Space Representation

150040707002

What you should know

Create a state-space model

Estimate number of states
Identify goal or objective function
Identify operators
Next Lecture: how to search/use model

Everyday Problem Solving

Route Planning
Finding and navigating to a classroom seat
Replanning if someone cuts in front

Driving to school
Constant updating due to traffic

Putting the dishes away

Spatial reasoning

Goal: Generality
People are good at multiple tasks
Same model of problem solving for all
problems
Generality via abstraction and
simplification.
Toy problems as benchmarks for methods,
not goal.
AI criticism: generality is not free

State-Space Model
Initial State
Operators: maps a state into a next state
alternative: successors of state

Goal Predicate: test to see if goal achieved

Optional:
cost of operators
cost of solution

Major Simplifications
You know the world perfectly
No one tells you how to represent the world
Sensors always make mistakes

You know what operators do

Operators dont always work

You know the set of legal operators

No one tells you the operators

8-Queens Model 1
Initial State: empty 8 by 8 board
Operators:
add a queen to empty square
remove a queen
[move a queen to new empty square]

Goal: no queen attacks another queen

Eight queens on board

Good enough? Can a solution be found?

8-Queens Model 2
Initial State: empty 8 by 8 board
Operators:
add ith queen to some column (i = 1..8)
Ith queen is in row i

Goal: no queen attacks another queen

8 queens on board

Good enough?

8-Queens Model 3
Initial State:
random placement of 8 queens ( 1 per row)

Operators:
move a queen to new position (in same row)

Goal: no queen attacks another queen

8 queens on board

Minton
Million Queens problem
Cant be solved by complete methods
Easy by Local Improvement
to be covered next week

Same method works for many real-world

problems.

Traveling Salesman Problem

Given: n cities and distances
Initial State: fix a city
Operators:

add a city to current path

[move a city to new position]
[swap two cities]
[UNCROSS]

Goal: cheapest path visiting all cities once and

returning.

TSP
Clay prize: $1,000,000 if prove can be done
in polynomial time or not.
Number of paths is N!
Similar to many real-world problems.
Often content with best achievable:
bounded rationality

Sliding Tile Puzzle

8 by 8 or 15 by 15 board
Initial State:
Operators:
Goal:

Sliding Tile Puzzle

8 by 8 or 15 by 15 board
Initial State: random (nearly) of number 1..7
or 1..14.
Operators:
slide tile to adjacent free square.

Goal: All tiles in order.

Note: Any complete information puzzle fits
this model.

Cryptarithmetic

Ex: SEND+MORE = MONEY

Initial State:
Operators:
Goal:

Cryptarithmetic
SEND+MORE = MONEY
Initial State: no variable has a value
Operators:
assign a variable a digit (0..9) (no dups)
unassign a variable

Goal: arithmetic statement is true.

Example of Constraint Satisfaction Problem

Boolean Satisfiability (3-sat)

$1,000,000 problem
Problem example (a1 +~a4+a7)&(.)
Initial State:
Operators
Goal:

Boolean Satisfiability (3-sat)

Problem example (a1 +~a4+a7)&(.)
Initial State: no variables are assigned values
Operators
assign variable to true or false
negate value of variable (t->f, f->t)

Goal: boolean expression is satisfied.

$1,000,000 problem
Ratio of clauses to variables breaks problem into 3 classes:
low ratio : easy to solve
high ratio: easy to show unsolvable
mid ratio: hard

CrossWord Solving
Initial-State: empty board
Operators:
add a word that
Matches definition
Matches filled in letters

Remove a word

Goal: board filled

Most Common Word

(Misspelled) Finding
Given: word length + set of strings
Find: most common word to all strings
Warning: word may be misspelled.

length 5: hellohoutemary position 5

bargainsamhotseview
position 10
tomdogarmyprogramhomse position 17
answer: HOUSE

Misspelled Word Finding

Let pi be position of word in string i

Initial state: pi = random position
Operators: assign pi to new position
Goal state: position yielding word with
fewest misspellings
Problem derived from Bioinformatics
finds regulatory elements; these determine
whether gene are made into proteins.