Branch and Bound

• It is a general algorithm for finding an optimal solution to various

optimization problems.

• It is very similar to backtracking in which state space tree is used to

solve a problem.

• Branch and Bound method applicable to a wide variety of discrete

combinatorial problems.
 Terminologies Used

Active node  - is a node that has been generated but whose children have not yet
been generated.
 E-node  - is an active node whose children are currently being explored.
dead node - is a generated node that should not be expanded or explored further.
All the children of a dead node have already been expanded
 
Least Cost (LC) Search
• The selection rule for the next E-node in FIFO or LIFO is sometimes
“blind”.
• The search for an answer node can be speeded by using an “intelligent”
ranking function called an approximate cost function “Ĉ”.
• E-node - is the live node with the best Ĉ value.
• Ĉ=g(X)+H(X).
Where
• g(X) - is an additional effort needed to reach an answer node from x.
• H(X) - is the cost of reaching x from the root