PES Institute of Technology and Management

Department of Computer Science & Engineering

SEMINAR REPORT:-
Subject Name: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Title of the Seminar:

Problem solving agents

Submitted by:
NAME USN
SHARANYA H 4PM21CS082
SHASHWATHI L P 4PM21CS083
SHRAVAM M 4PM21CS084
SHREYA 4PM21CS085

Submitted to:
Mr. Sunil H R,
Assistant professor,
CSE dept ,PESITM,
Shivamogga.

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 Table of contents:

CONTENTS PAGE NO.

1. PROBLEM SOLVING AGENTS 3-5
2. WELL DEFINED PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS 6-7
3. FORMULATING PROBLEM 8

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 Problem Solving Agents

Agent – An agent is anything that can be viewed as perceiving its environment through
sensors and acting upon that environment through actuators .

Problem solving is process of generating solutions from observed data where it is a one of
the important application in AI.

 Problem is characterized by a set of goals, set of objects, and

set of operations.
 The method of solving problem through AI involves the process of
o defining the problem statement first,
o deciding start and goal states,
o finding the path from start state to goal state through search.
o generating the solution by keeping the different condition in mind.
 Searching is the most commonly used technique of problem solving in Artificial
Intelligence .

Goal Based Agent or Problem Solving Agent –

 Problem solving agent : Is a type of goal-based agent.

 We then describe several general-purpose search algorithms that can be used to solve
these problems.
 Those are uninformed search algorithms – algorithms that are given no information
about the problem other than its definition.
 Informed search algorithms, on the other hand can do quite well given some guidance
on where to look for solutions.
 Problem solving in games such as “sudoku” , it can be done by building an AI system
to solve that particular problem .

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Goal Formulation and Problem Formulation –

1. Goal Formulation :
o It is based on the current situation and the agent’s performance measure , is
the first step in problem solving.
o Where it is about having a goal we want to reach.

2. Problem Formulation:

A problem formulation is about deciding what actions and states should be taken to achieve
the formulated goal.

 The process of looking for a sequence of actions that reaches the goal is called search.
 A search algorithm takes a problem as input and returns a solution in the form of an
action sequence.
 Once a solution is found, the actions it recommends can be carried out. This execution
is called the execution phase.
 Thus, we have a simple “formulate, search, execute” design for the agent.
 After formulating a goal and a problem to solve, the agent calls a search procedure to
solve it.
 It then uses the solution to guide its actions, doing whatever the solution recommends
as the next thing to do typically, the first action of the sequence and then removing
that step from the sequence.
 Once the solution has been executed, the agent will formulate a new goal.

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 Notice that while the agent is executing the solution sequence it ignores its precepts
when choosing an action because it knows in advance what they will be.
 An agent that carries out its plans with its eyes closed, so to speak, must be quite
certain of what is going open loop on. Control theorists call this an open-loop system,
because ignoring the precepts breaks the loop between agent and environment.

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 WELL DEFINED PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

PROBLEM CAN BE DEFINED FORMALLY BY 5 COMPONENTS:

1. Initial state
2. Set of actions
3. Transition model
4. Goal test
5. Path cost

EXPLANATION OF FIVE COMPONENTS OF PROBLEM WITH EXAMPLE:

 The initial state that the agent starts in. The initial state for our agent in Romania
might be described as In(Arad)
 A description of the possible actions available to the agent. Given a particular state s,
(s) returns the set of actions that can be executed in s. We say that each of these
actions is applicable in s. For example, from the state In(Arad), the applicable actions
are {Go(Sibiu), Go(Timisoara), Go(Zerind)}.
 A description of what each action does; the formal name for this is the transition
model, specified by a function RESULT(s, a) that returns the state that results from
doing action a in state s. We also use the term successor to refer to any state reachable
from a given state by a single action.2 For example, we have
RESULT(In(Arad),Go(Zerind)) = In(Zerind) .
 Together, the initial state, actions, and transition model implicitly define the state
space of the problem—the set of all states reachable from the initial state by any
sequence of actions. The state space forms a directed network or graph in which the
nodes are states and the links between nodes are actions. (The map of Romania shown
in Figure 3.2 can be interpreted as a state-space graph if we view each road as
standing for two driving actions, one in each direction.) A path in the state space is a
sequence of states connected by a sequence of actions.

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  The goal test, which determines whether a given state is a goal state. Sometimes there
is an explicit set of possible goal states, and the test simply checks whether the given
state is one of them. The agent’s goal in Romania is the singleton set {In(Bucharest)}.
 Sometimes the goal is specified by an abstract property rather than an explicitly
enumerated set of states. For example, in chess, the goal is to reach a state called
“checkmate,” where the opponent’s king is under attack and can’t escape.
 A path cost function that assigns a numeric cost to each path. The problem-solving
agent chooses a cost function that reflects its own performance measure. For the agent
trying to get to Bucharest, time is of the essence, so the cost of a path might be its
length in kilometers. In this chapter, we assume that the cost of a path can be
described as the sum of the costs of the individual actions along the path. The step
cost of taking action a in state s to reach state s ′ is denoted by c(s, a, s′ ). The step
costs for Romania are shown in Figure as route distances. We assume that step costs
are nonnegative.

The preceding elements define a problem and can be gathered into a single data structure that
is given as input to a problem-solving algorithm. A solution to a problem is an action
sequence that leads from the initial state to a goal state. Solution quality is measured by the
path cost function, and an optimal solution has the lowest path cost among all solutions.

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 FORMULATING PROBLEM

Formulating problem can be achieved by using the steps given above that is

 Initial state
 Set of action
 Transition model
 Goal test
 Path cost

Although this technique is great , it requires huge computation of data. The time taken to
go through the details is huge. This problem can be overcome using the concept of
abstraction. The process of removing detail from a representation is called abstraction.

 Abstraction is a technique used in problem-solving to simplify complex real-world

problems by focusing on essential elements for finding a solution.
 Abstraction involves removing irrelevant details from the representation of the
problem, such as traveling companions, radio programs, scenery, and other real-world
considerations that are not essential for finding a solution.
 Abstraction also extends to the actions themselves, where only the change in location
is considered, while other effects of driving actions, such as time, fuel consumption,
and environmental impact, are omitted.
 The appropriate level of abstraction is defined by ensuring that the abstract states and
actions correspond to large sets of detailed world states and action sequences, and that
the abstraction is valid and useful for finding solutions.
 A good abstraction is one that removes as much detail as possible while retaining
validity and ensuring that the abstract actions are easier to carry out than the original
problem.
 Abstraction is crucial for intelligent agents to solve complex problems without being
overwhelmed by the sheer amount of detail.
 The ability to construct useful abstractions is essential for intelligent agents to
effectively solve complex real-world problems.
 Abstraction has broad applications in problem-solving, including in areas such as
route-finding, planning, decision-making, and optimization.
 The process of abstraction involves a trade-off between simplicity and accuracy, and
finding the appropriate level of abstraction can be challenging.
 Abstraction is an ongoing area of research in artificial intelligence and cognitive science, with
the potential to enable more efficient and effective problem-solving in a wide range of
domains.