PROBLEM SOLVING, SEARCH AND CONTROL STRATEGIES

PROBLEM SOLVING
Problem solving is fundamental to many AI-based applications. Problem solving is a process of
generating solutions from observed data. A problem is characterized by:
 A set of goals
 A set of objects and
 A set of operations
These could be ill-defined and may evolve during problem solving. To develop a computer
system that is capable of solving problems it is necessary to perform 4 activities:
 Define the problem precisely including detailed specifications and what constitutes an
acceptable solution.
 Analyse the problem thoroughly for some features may have a dominant affect on the
chosen method of solution.
 Isolate and represent the background knowledge needed in the solution of the problem.
 Choose the best problem solving techniques in the solution.

DEFINING PROBLEM AS A STATE SPACE SEARCH

Problems dealt with in artificial intelligence generally use a common term called 'state'. A state
represents a status of the solution at a given step of the problem solving procedure. The solution
of a problem is thus a collection of the problem states.
The problem solving procedure applies an operator to a state to get the next state. Then it
applies another operator to the resulting state to derive a new state. The process of applying an
operator to a state and its subsequent transition to the next state, thus, is continued until the goal
(desired) state is derived. Such a method of solving a problem is generally referred to as state
space approach.
Problem Definitions
A problem is defined by its elements and their relations. To provide a formal description of a
problem the following are required:
 Define a state space this is a set of all possible states of a given problem reachable from the
initial state. A state space representation allow for the formal definition of a problem which
makes the movement from initial state to the goal state quite easy.
 Specify one or more states that describe possible situations, from which the problem-solving
process may start. These states are called initial states.
 Specify one or more states that would be acceptable solution to the problem. These states are
called goal states.
 Specify a set of rules that describe the actions (operators) available. The problem can then be
solved by using the rules, in combination with an appropriate control strategy, to move
through the problem space until a path from an initial state to a goal state is found. This
process is known as ‘search’.

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Search is fundamental to the problem-solving process. Search is a general mechanism that can be
used when more direct method is not known. Search provides the framework into which more
direct methods for solving subparts of a problem can be embedded. A very large number of AI
problems are formulated as search problems.

Advantages of state space reprentation

This representation is very useful in AI because it provides a set of all possible states, operations
and goals. If the entire state-space representation for a problem is given then it is possible to
trace the path from initial to goal state and identify the sequence of operators required for doing
this.
Disadvantages
It is not possible to visualize all states of a given problem. Also the resources of the computer
system are limited to handle huge state space representation.
PROBLEM CHARACTERISTICS
A problem may have different aspects of representation and explanation. In order to choose the
most appropriate method for a particular problem, it is necessary to analyze the problem along
several key dimensions. Some of the main key features of a problem are given below.
1. Is the problem decomposable into set of sub problems?
2. Can the solution step be ignored or undone?
3. Is the problem universally predictable?
4. Is a good solution to the problem obvious without comparison to all the possible
solutions?
5. Is the desire solution a state of world or a path to a state?
6. Is a large amount of knowledge absolutely required to solve the problem?
7. Will the solution of the problem required interaction between the computer and the
person?
The above characteristics of a problem are called as 7-problem characteristics under which the
solution must take place.
EXAMPLES OF SEARCH STATE SPACE PROBLEMS
Example 1: 8-Puzzle
Problem formulation: The eight tile puzzle consist of a 3 by 3(3*3) square frame board which
holds (8) movable tiles numbered as 1 to 8. One square is empty, allowing the adjacent tile to be
shifted. The objective of the puzzle is to find a sequence of tiles movement that leads from a
starting configuration to a goal configuration as shown below
1 4 3 1 4 3

7 6 To be tranformed 7 6 2

5 8 2 5 8

Start state(initial) Goal state(Final)

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NB: Please note that an optimal solution is the one that maps an initial arrangement of tiles to
the goal with the smallest (minimum) number of moves. Let’s do standard formulation of this
problem:
State: It specifies the location of each of the 8 tiles and the blank in one of the nine squares
Initial State: Any state can be designed as the initial state.
Goal: Many goal configuration are possible as shown in figure below
Legal Moves (or states): They generate legal states that result from trying. The four actions
 Black moves left
 Black moves right
 Black moves up
 Blank moves down
Path cost: Each step cost 1, so the path is number of steps in the path.
The tree diagram below shows search space

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Example 2: Water Jug Problem
The problem domain is as follows “Given two jugs, a 4-gallon and 3-gallon having no measuring
markers on them. There is a pump that can be used to fill the jugs with water. How can you get
exactly 2 gallons of water into 4-gallon jug.
State space representation
State space for this problem can be described as the set of ordered pairs of integers (X, Y)
such that X=0,1,2,3, or 4 and Y=0,1,2 or 3. Here X is the number of gallons of water in the 4-
gallon jug and Y is the quantity of water in the 3-gallon jug.
 Start state is (0,0) and
 the Goal state is (2, N) for any value of N. Since the problem does not specify how many
gallons need to be filled in the three gallon jug (0,1,2,3). Also note that the problem has
one initial state and many goal state. Some problems may have many initial states and
one or many goals.
 The operators to be used to solve the problem can be described below. They are
represented as rules whose left side are matched against the current state and whose right
sides describe the new state that results from applying the rule.
Table 1:Production rule(or operators) for the water jug problem

1. (X,Y) (4,Y) If X<4 Fill the 4- gallon jug

2. (X,Y) (X,3) If X<3 Fill the 3-gallon jug

3. (X,Y) (X-D,Y) If Y>0 Pour some water out of the 4- gallon jug

4. (X,Y) (X,Y-D) If Y>0 Pour some water out of the 3- gallon jug

5. (X,Y) (0,Y) If X>0 Empty the 4- gallon jug on the ground

6. (X,Y) (X,0) If Y>0 Empty the 3- gallon jug on the ground

7. (X,Y) (4,Y-(4-X)) If Pour water from the 3- gallon jug into the 4-gallon
X+Y>=4 and Y >0 jug until the 4-galoon jug is full

8 (X,Y) (X-(3-Y),3)) If Pour water from the 4- gallon jug into the 3-gallon
X+Y>=3 and X>0 jug until the

9. (X,Y) (X+Y,0) If X+Y<=4 Pour all the water from the 3 -gallon jug into
and Y>0 the 3-gallon jug

10. (X,Y) (0,X+Y) If X+Y<=3 Pour all the water from the 4 -gallon jug into

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 and X>0 the 3-gallon jug

11. (0,2) (2,0) Pour the 2-gallon from the 3 -gallon jug into
the 4-gallon jug

12. (2,Y) (0,X) Empty the 2 gallon in the 4 gallon on the ground

Please note that the speed with which the problem is solved depends upon the mechanism control
structure which is used to select the next operation. Two such possible solutions are shown
below:

Trace of steps involved in solving the water jug problem First solution

Number Rules applied 4-g jug 3-g jug

of steps

1 Initial state 0 0
2 R2 {Fill 3-g jug} 0 3
3 R7 {Pour all water from 3 to 4-g jug} 3 0
4 R2 {Fill 3-g jug} 3 3
5 R5 {Pour from 3 to 4-g jug until it is full 4 2
6 R3 {Empty 4-gallon jug} 0 2
7 R7 {Pour all water from 3 to 4-g jug} 2 0
Goal state

The 2nd solution can be:-

Number Rules applied 4-g jug 3-g jug

of steps

1 Initial state 0 0
2 R1 {Fill 4-gallon jug} 4 0
3 R6 {Pour from water 4 to 3-g jug} 1 3
4 R4 {Empty 3-gallon jug} 1 0
5 R8 {Pour all water from 4 to 3-gallon jug} 0 1
6 R1 {Fill 4-gallon jug} 4 1
7 R6 {Pour from 4 to 3-g jug until it is full} 2 3
8 R4 {Empty 3-gallon jug} 2 0
Goal state

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State space graph of water jug problem.

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Example 3 : Missionaries and Cannibals
The Missionaries and Cannibals problem illustrates the use of state space search for planning
under constraints:
Three missionaries and three cannibals wish to cross a river using a two person boat. If at any
time the cannibals outnumber the missionaries on either side of the river, they will eat the
missionaries. How can a sequence of boat trips be performed that will get everyone to the other
side of the river without any missionaries being eaten?
State representation:.
 An initial state is: (3, 3, LEFT, 0, 0) - 3 missionaries and 3 cannibals on the left bank of
the river
 A goal state is: (0, 0, RIGHT, 3, 3) -3 missionaries and 3 cannibals on the right bank of the
river
 Possible moves are:
from (3, 3, LEFT, 0, 0) to (2, 2, RIGHT, 1, 1)

from (2, 2, RIGHT, 1, 1) to (2, 3, LEFT, 1, 0)

 Operators for M&C:

Move-1m1c-lr, Move-1m1c-rl, Move-2c-lr, Move-2c-rl, Move-2m-lr ,Move-2m-rl,
Move-1c-lr, Move-1c-rl, Move-1m-lr, Move-1m-rl

The state space graph for missionary and cannibals is shown below:

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Example 4: Towers of Hanoi
The “Towers of Hanoi” puzzle is an interesting example of a state space for solving a puzzle
problem. The object of this puzzle is to move a number of disks from one peg to another (one at
a time), with a number of constraints that must be met. Each disk is of a unique size and it’s not
legal for a larger disk to sit on top of a smaller disk. The initial state of the puzzle is such that
all disks begin on one peg in increasing size order as shown below.

Initial position Goal Position

Our goal (the solution) is to move all disks to the last peg as shown . As in many state spaces,
there are potential transitions that are not legal. For example, we can only move a peg that has no
object above it. Further,we can’t move a large disk onto a smaller disk (though we can move any
disk to an empty peg). The space of possible operators is therefore constrained only to legal
moves. The state space can also be constrained to moves that have not yet been performed for a
given subtree. For example, if we move a small disk from Peg A to Peg C, moving the same disk
back to Peg A could be defined as an invalid transition. Not doing so would result in loops and
an infinitely deep tree.
Consider our initial position shown above. The only disk that may move is the small disk at the
top of Peg A. For this disk, only two legal moves are possible, from Peg A to Peg B or C. From
this state, there are three potential moves:
1. Move the small disk from Peg C to Peg B.
2. Move the small disk from Peg C to Peg A.
3. Move the medium disk from Peg A to Peg B.
The first move (small disk from Peg C to Peg B), while valid is not a potential
move, as we just moved this disk to Peg C (an empty peg). Moving it a second
time serves no purpose (as this move could have been done during the prior
transition), so there’s no value in doing this now (a heuristic). The second
move is also not useful (another heuristic), because it’s the reverse of the

The state space tree generated by this problem is illustrated below

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Note that, because some transitions return the disks to an earlier state, the tree if fully expanded
would be of infinite size. So whilst generating the entire tree, searching it for the goal state, and
reading off the transitions that lead to that state, is a guaranteed method of solving the problem,
it's not actually possible to do (in a finite universe).

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 SEARCH IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Search is a problem-solving technique that systematically consider all possible action to find a
path from initial to target state.
In solving a problem, it’s convenient to think about the solution space in terms of a
number of actions that we can take, and the new state of the environment as we perform those
actions. As we take one of multiple possible actions (each have their own cost), our environment
changes and opens up alternatives for new actions. As is the case with many kinds of problem
solving, some paths lead to dead-ends where others lead to solutions. And there may also be
multiple solutions, some better than others.
The problem of search is to find a sequence of operators that transition from the start to
goal state. That sequence of operators is the solution. How we avoid dead-ends and then select
the best solution available is a product of our particular search strategy.

Search strategies
A strategy is defined by picking the order of node expansion. Strategies are evaluated based on:
 completeness—does it always find a solution if one exists?
 time complexity—number of nodes generated/expanded
 space complexity—maximum number of nodes in memory
 optimality—does it always find a least-cost solution?
There two major types of search strategies this include Uninformed and informed search strategy
1. Uninformed Search: sometimes called blind, exhaustive or bruto-force. Methods that do not
use any specific knowledge about the problem to guide the search and therefore may not be
very efficient. Search through the search space all possible candidates for the solution
checking whether each candidate satisfies the problem's statement. The search techniques in
this strategy include:
 Breadth-first search BFS
 depth-first search DFS
 Depth limited search DLS
 Depth first search Iterative deepening DFSID
 Uniform cost search UCS
 Bi-directional search
2. Informed Search: sometime called heuristics or intelligent search which uses information
about the problem to guide the search - usually guesses the distance to a goal state and
therefore efficient, but the search may not be always possible. They are specific to the
problem. The methods in this strategy include:
 Best-First Search
o Greedy best-first Search
o A* Search

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1. UNINFORMED/EXHAUSTIVE/BRUTE FORCE SEARCH
(i) Breadth-first search

Breadth-first search is a simple strategy in which the root node is expanded first,then all
successors of the root node are expanded next,then their successors,and so on. In general,all the
nodes are expanded at a given depth in the search tree before any nodes at the next level are
expanded.

Figure 1: Breadth-first search on a simple binary tree.

Advantages
 Breath First Search is an exhaustive search algorithm. It is simple to implement. And it can
be applied to any search problem.
 Comparing Breath First Search to depth-first search algorithm, BFS does not suffer from any
potential infinite loop problem , which may cause the computer to crash whereas depth first
search goes deep down searching.
 Breath First Search will perform well if the search space is small.
 It performs best if the goal state lies in upper left-hand side of the tree.
 If there is more than one solution then Breath First search find the minimal one that requires
less number of steps.

Disadvantages
 Breath first search performs relatively poorly relative to the depth-first search algorithm if
the goal state lies in the bottom of the tree.
 memory utilization is poor in Breath First Search so we can say that Breath First Search
needs more memory as compared to DFS.

(ii) Depth-First Search

The depth first search follow a path to its end before stating to explore another path.

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 Figure 2: Depth-first-search on a binary tree.

Advantages:
 Low storage requirement: linear with tree depth.
 Easily programmed: function call stack does most of the work of maintaining state of the
search.

Disadvantages:
 May find a sub-optimal solution (one that is deeper or more costly than the best solution).
 Incomplete: without a depth bound, may not find a solution even if one exists.)
 The drawback of depth-first-search is that it can make a wrong choice and get stuck going
down very long(or even infinite) path when a different choice would lead to solution near the
root of the search tree.

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(iii) Depth-Limited Search
Depth-limited search essentially does a depth-first search with a cutoff at a specified depth limit.
When the search hits a node at that depth, it stops going down that branch and moves over to the
next one. This avoids the potential problem with depth-first search of going down one branch
indefinitely.
Advantages
 Depth limited search avoids the pitfalls of depth search by imposing a cut-off on the
maximum depth of a path.

Disavantages
 Depth limited search is complete but not optimal.
 If we choose a depth limit that is too small, then depth limited search is not even complete.
 The time and space complexity of depth limited search is similar to depth first search.

(iv) Depth First Search Iterative Deepening

Depth First Search Iterative Deepening is a kind of search performs depth first search to
bounded depth d , starting d=1, and on each iteration it increases by 1.Depth First Search
Iterative Deepening was created as an attempt to combine the ability of BFS to always find an
optimal solution. With the lower memory overhead of the DFS, we can say it combines the best
features of breadth first and depth first search. It performs the DFS search to depth one, then
starts over, executing a complete DFS to depth two, and continues to run depth first searches to
successfully greater depths until a solution is found.

Figure 3: Stages of iterative deepening search

Advantages:
 Finds an optimal solution (shortest number of steps).

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 Has the low (linear in depth) storage requirement of depth-first search.
 Unlike normal depth-first search and depth-limited search, it is complete. It also does this
without greatly increasing the expected runtime.

Disadvantages:
 The disadvantage is wasted search

(v) Uniform-cost search (UCS)

Uniform-cost search is an uninformed search strategy. Uniform-cost is guided by path cost rather
than path length like in Breath First Search, the algorithms starts by expanding the root, then
expanding the node with the lowest cost from the root, the search continues in this manner for all
nodes.
UCS finds the least-cost path through a graph by maintaining an ordered list of nodes in order of
least-greatest cost(Priority Queue).This allows evaluation of the least cost path first. The
algorithm uses the accumulated path cost and a priority queue to determine the path to evaluate.
The priority queue (least cost) contains the nodes to be evaluated. As node children are
evaluated, we add their cost to the node with the aggregate sum of the current path. This node is
then added to the queue, and when all children have been evaluated, the queue is sorted in order
of ascending cost. When the first element in the priority queue is the goal node, then the best
solution has been found.
Step-by-Step Execution of UCS
Step0: { [ S , 0 ] }

Step1: { [ S->A , 1 ] , [ S->G , 12 ] }

Step2: { [ S->A->C , 2 ] , [ S->A->B , 4 ] , [ S->G , 12] }

Step3: { [ S->A->C->D , 3 ] , [ S->A->B , 4 ] ,[ S->A->C->G

, 4 ] , [ S->G , 12 ] }

Step4: { [ S->A->B , 4 ] , [ S->A->C->G , 4 ] ,[ S->A->C-

>D->G , 6 ] , [ S->G , 12 ] }

Step5: { [ S->A->C->G , 4 ] , [ S->A->C->D->G , 6 ] ,

[ S->A->B->D , 7 ] , [ S->G , 12 ] }

Step6 Output as S->A->C->G.

Waheed

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Advantages
1. Can set to prune (remove) duplicate entries in the queue.
2. Can set to search exhaustively for optimal solution, if possible,among different lest-cost
candidate paths to the goal.

Disadvantages
1. It performs wasted computation before reaching the goal depth.

(vi) Bidirectional Search

Bidirectional Search The idea behind bidirectional search is to run two searches same time, one
forward from the initial state and other backward from the goal stopping when the two searches
meet in the middle .Bidirectional search is implemented by having one or both of the searches
check each mode before it is expanded to see if it is in the fringe of other search tree; if it is so, a
solution has been found.

For example if a problem has solution depth d=6, and each direction runs breadth-first search one
node at a time then in the worst case the two searches meet when each has expanded all but one
of the nodes at depth 3. For b=10, it means a total of 22,200 node generation, compared with
11,111,100 for a standard breadth-first search. This algorithm is complete and optimal, if both
searches are breadth first; other combinations may sacrifice completeness, optimally or both.

Advantages

 Time and memory requirements good, comparatively

Disadvantages

 Not always feasible, or possible, to search backward through possible states.

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 2. INFORMED SEARCH/HEURISTICS SEARCH
A heuristic is a method that might not always find the best solution but is guaranteed to find a
good solution in reasonable time. By sacrificing completeness it increases efficiency. It is
particularly useful in solving tough problems which could not be solved any other way and if a
complete solution was to be required infinite time would be needed i.e. far longer than a lifetime.
To use heuristics to find a solution in acceptable time rather than a complete solution in infinite
time.
A heuristic function or simply a heuristic is a function that ranks alternatives in various search
algorithms at each branching step basing on an available information in order to make a decision
which branch is to be followed during a search

Heuristic or informed search exploits additional knowledge about the problem that helps direct
search to more promising paths. A heuristic function, h(n), provides an estimate of the cost of
the path from a given node to the closest goal state. Must be zero if node represents a goal state.
Example:
Straight-line distance from current location to the goal location in a road navigation problem.

(i) Best First Search

This is simply breadth-first search, but with the nodes re-ordered by their heuristic value. Best-
first retains a record of every state that has been visited as well as the heuristic value of that state.
The best state ever visited is retrieved and search continues from there. This makes best-first
search appear to jump around the search tree, like a random search, but of course best-first search
is not random. The memory requirements for best-first search are worse than hill-climbing but
not as bad as breadth-first. This is because breadth-first search does not use a heuristic to avoid
obviously worse states. There are two types of Best first search this include:

 Greedy Best First Search

 A* Search

a) Greedy Best First Search

Greedy searchis a best-first strategy where we try to minimize estimated cost to reach the goal.
Since we are greedy always expand the node that is estimated to be closest to the goal state,
Unfortunately the exact cost of reaching the goal state usually can’t be computed, but we can
estimate it by using a cost estimate or heuristic function h().
f(n) = h(n)

When we are examining node n, then h() gives us the estimated cost of the cheapest path from
n’s state to the goal state. Of course the better an estimate h() gives, the better and faster we will
find a solution to our problem Greedy search has similar behavior to depth-first search. Its
advantages are delivered via the use of a quality heuristic function to direct the search.

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Advantages
 The main advantage of this search is that it is simple and finds solution quickly

Disadvantages
 Like depth-first search, greedy search is not complete.
 Greedy search is not guaranteed to find the solution with the shortest path i.e not optimal
 It is possible for greedy search to proceed down an infinitely long branch without finding a
solution, even when one exists i.e likely to get stuck in loops

b) A* Search

A* Search One of the best-known form of Best First search. A* search algorithm, which
combines the greedy search algorithm for efficiency with the uniform cost search for optimality
and completeness. Unlike greedy search, with A* the heuristic function also takes into account
the existing cost from the starting point to the current node. This searching technique avoids
expanding paths that are already expensive, but expands most promising paths first.
In A* the evaluation function is computed by the two heuristic measures h(n) and g(n).
f(n) = g(n) + h(n), where

 g(n) the cost of the shortest path from the start node to node n
 h(n) returns the actual cost of the shortest path from n to the goal
 f(n) this is the actual cost of the optimal path from start node to goal node that passes
through node n
This combination of strategies turns out to provide A* with both completeness(does it always
find a solution if one exists?) and optimality(does it always find a least-cost solution?).

Advantages

 A* search is complete - it will always find a solution if one exists.

 A* search is optimal - to be optimal it must be used with anadmissibile heuristic. An
admissibile heuristic, also known as an optimistic heuristic, never overestimates the cost
of reaching the goal.

Disadvantages
 A* search is that, as it needs to maintain a list of unsearched nodes, it can require large
amounts of memory.

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(ii) Hill-climbing search

The basic idea of hill-climbing search is that it simply evaluates the objective function for all
states that are neighbors to the current state, and takes the neighbor state with the best objective
function value as the new current state. If there are more than one next best states, one is picked
randomly.

Hill-climbing search is sometimes called greedy search, because a step is taken after only
considering the immediate neighbors. No time is spent considering possible future states.
Hill-climbing is easy to formulate and implement and often finds pretty good states quickly. But,
it has the following problems:
 it gets stuck on local optima (hills for maximizing searches, valleys for minimizing searches,
 it may get stuck on a ridge, if no single action can advance the search along the ridge,
 it may get stuck wandering on a plateau for which all neighboring states have equal value.
Common variations include
 allow sideways moves (when on a plateau)
 stochastic hill-climbing: choose next state with probability related to increase in value of
objective function
 first-choice hill-climbing: generate neighbors by random choice of available actions and keep
first state that has better value,
 random-restart hill climbing: conduct multiple hill-climbing searches from multiple,
randomly generated, initial states.
Only this last one, with random-restarts, is complete. In the limit, all states will be tried as
starting states so the goal, or best state, will eventually be found.

Advantages
1. Acceptable for simple problems.
Disadvantages
1. Local Maxima: peaks that aren’t the highest point in the space
2. Plateaus: the space has a broad flat region that gives the search algorithm no direction
(random walk)
3. Ridge:The orientation of the high region, compared to the set of available moves, makes
it impossible to climb up. However, two moves executed serially may increase the height.

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