Unit-1- Introduction to AI

AI techniques, Problem solving with AI, AI Models, Data acquisition and

learning aspects in AI, Problem solving- Problem solving process,
formulating problems, Problem types and characteristics, Problem space
and search, Toy Problems – Tic-tac-toe problems, Missionaries and
Cannibals Problem, Real World Problem – Travelling Salesman Problem
Problem-solving
Introduction to AI
According to Rich and Knight,
“AI is the study of how to make computers do things which at the
moment, people do better”

Branch of science which makes machine intelligent enough in

comparable to people

Involves the study of Psychology (human), giving human reactions to

a machine and also mathematical modelling to optimize
Introduction to AI

Horizon of AI includes,
Knowledge Transmission
Knowledge Representation
Automated Reasoning

Machines should act rationally

 What is intelligence?
 Intelligence is an umbrella term used to describe a property of the
mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities

–to reason,
–to plan,
–to solve problems,
–to think abstractly,
–to comprehend ideas,
–to use language, and
–to learn.
Intelligence can be defined as the ability for solving problems

• Problem solving is to find the “best” solution in the problem space.

• Reasoning is to interpret or justify solutions or sub-solutions.
• Planning is to find ways for solving the problem.
• Thinking abstractly is to simulate the problem solving process inside the system (brain).
• Idea/language comprehension is a way (or means) for data/problem/knowledge representation;
• Learning is the process to find better ways for solving a problem (or a class of problems).
 What is AI ?
• Textbooks often define artificial intelligence as “the study and design of
computing systems that perceives its environment and takes actions like
human beings”.
• The term was introduced by John McCarthy in 1956 in the well-known
Dartmouth Conference.
• AI is defined as a system that possesses at least one (not necessarily all)
of the abilities mentioned :
• Reasoning
• Planning
• Thinking
• Idea/language comprehension
• Learning
 A rough classification of AI(from “Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach”)

Stuart J. Russell, Peter Norwig , Artificial Intelligence –A Modern approach 2

 Thinking humanly: cognitive modeling
Determining how humans think
• through introspection—trying to catch our own thoughts as they go by
• through psychological experiments

Express the theory as a computer program

• program's input/output and timing behavior matches human behavior

Stuart J. Russell, Peter Norwig , Artificial Intelligence –A Modern approach 4

 Acting humanly: Turing Test
• Turing (1950) "Computing machinery and intelligence":
• "Can machines think?"  "Can machines behave intelligently?"
• Operational test for intelligent behavior: the Imitation Game

The computer would need to possess the following capabilities:

• natural language processing to enable it to communicate successfully in English (or some
other human language);
• knowledge representation to store information provided before or during the interrogation;
• automated reasoning to use the stored information to answer questions and to draw new
conclusions;
• machine learning to adapt to new circumstances and to detect and extrapolate patterns.
To pass the total Turing Test, the computer will need
• computer vision to perceive objects
• robotics to move them about.

Stuart J. Russell, Peter Norwig , Artificial Intelligence –A Modern approach 3

 Thinking rationally: "laws of thought"
• Aristotle: what are correct arguments/thought processes?
• Several Greek schools developed various forms of logic: notation and rules of derivation for thoughts;
may or may not have proceeded to the idea of mechanization
• Direct line through mathematics and philosophy to modern AI
• Problems:
1. Not all intelligent behavior is mediated by logical deliberation
2. What is the purpose of thinking? What thoughts should I have?

Stuart J. Russell, Peter Norwig , Artificial Intelligence –A Modern approach 5

 Acting rationally: rational agent
• Rational behavior: doing the right thing
• The right thing: that which is expected to maximize goal achievement, given the available
information
• An agent is just something that perceives and acts
• Doesn't necessarily involve thinking – but thinking should be in the service of rational action

Stuart J. Russell, Peter Norwig , Artificial Intelligence –A Modern approach 6

 Rational agents
• An agent is an entity that perceives and acts
• Abstractly, an agent is a function from percept histories to actions:
[f: P*  A]

• For any given class of environments and tasks, we seek the agent (or class of agents) with the best
performance
• computational limitations make perfect rationality unachievable
 design best program for given machine resources

Stuart J. Russell, Peter Norwig , Artificial Intelligence –A Modern approach 7

AI – History and Foundations
AI entered mainstream before 60 years

Defined as Statistics, Analysis of patterns and use of formal systems

In 1940 Zuse developed artificial chess playing using high level
language called Plankalkul.

Leibniz developed a language for reasoning using symbols

AI – History and Foundations
Alan Turing, British mathematician and WWII code-breaker, is widely
credited as being one of the first people to come up with the idea of
machines that think in 1950.

He even created the Turing test, which is still used today, as a
benchmark to determine a machine’s ability to “think” like a human.

Though his ideas were ridiculed at the time, they set the wheels in
motion, and the term “artificial intelligence” entered popular
awareness in the mid- 1950s, after Turing died.
AI – History and Foundations
Isaac Asimov, was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston
University.
The Three Laws of Robotics. The rules were introduced in his 1950 short story
"Runaround" and "I,Robot“

First Law
 A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to
harm.
Second Law
 A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would
conflict with the First Law.
Third Law
 A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the
First or Second Law.
AI – History and Foundations
1951 – First AI based program was written
a checkers-playing program written by Christopher Strachey and a chess-
playing program written by Dietrich Prinz.
1955 – First self learning game playing
competing against human players in the game of Checkers
1959 – MIT – AI based lab setup
1961 – First Robot is introduced into GM’s assembly line
AI – History and Foundations
1964 – First demo of AI program which understand natural language
1965 – First chat bot Eliza was invented
1974 – First Autonomous vehicle is created
1989 – Carnegie Mellon created the first autonomous vehicle using
neural networks
 ALVINN, which stands for Autonomous Land Vehicle In a Neural Network
AI – History and Foundations
1996 – IBM’s deep blue – chess playing game
Deep Blue won its first game against world champion Garry Kasparov in game
one of a six-game match on 10 February 1996.
1999 – Sony introduces AIBO – self learning entertaining robot
AI – History and Foundations
1999 – MIT AI lab – first emotional AI is demonstrated

2004 – DARPA – introduce first vehicle challenge

2009 – Google – stared to build a self driving car

2010 – Narrative Science AI demonstrate ability to write reports

2011 – IBM watson beats jeopardy champions – quiz game

the Watson computer system competed on Jeopardy against champions Brad Rutter
and Ken Jennings, winning the first place prize of $1 million.
AI – History and Foundations

2011 – Google now and Cortana becomes mainstream

2016 – Stanford issues the AI 100 reports

2016 – UC Berkley launces the centre for human compatible AI

AI – History and Foundations
AI was started long back

This is made as possible currently

Big data
Computing Power
Birth of AI
Initially, AI dealt with simple reasoning and reaction problems. It
requires only very less knowledge base

Over the period of time, domains like speech recognition, image

processing and medical image diagnosis had been added under AI

Later, AI started to handle complex task with more knowledge base

Examples
Building intelligent systems,
Water tap
When tank gets filled, switch off

Washing machines
Stops water after reaching particular level
Fuzzy logic takes necessary amount of water only

Traffic control
Automatically, dynamically adjust signal timing, info to nearby signals, etc…
Examples
So, the basics of AI,

Machine has to learn

Machine learn from given knowledge

Knowledge should be properly represented

Advantages of Artificial Intelligence
• more powerful and more useful computers
• new and improved interfaces
• solving new problems
• better handling of information
• relieves information overload
• conversion of information into knowledge

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The Disadvantages
• increased costs
• difficulty with software development - slow and expensive
• few experienced programmers
• few practical products have reached the market as yet.

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AI Techniques
Types of problem solved,

Various day to day problems

Identification and Authentication in security

Various classification problems in decision making

Interdependent and cross domain problem

Data Acquisition and Learning Aspects in AI
Knowledge discovery
Data Mining
Machine learning
Computational learning theory
Study and analyse of algorithms
Lot of mathematical models
Neural and Evolutionary computation
Neural: mimics the neural behaviour of human beings
Evolutionary: Biological behaviours
Intelligent agents and multi-agent systems
Agent: a software which is flexible and supports users
Problem solving
• Given situation -> Desired situation

• Task of AI – to perform series of action to move from given situation

to desired situation
Types of problem solving
• Knowledge based • Search based
• Memory based
• Rule based
Search based method – state space

State Space
Search based method – state space

State Space

S
Search based method – state space

State Space

S
Search based method – state space

State Space

S
Search based method – state space

State Space

D
Move
S
Search based method – state space
• Movegen(S) – find all possible neighbours

D
Move
S
PROBLEM SOLVING
Problem solving – area of finding answers for unknown situation
Understanding
Representation
Formulation
Solving
Types,
Simple – Can be solved using deterministic approach
Complex – Lack of full information
Humans?
Able to perceive, learn, use statistical methods, mathematical modelling to
solve
AI do the same for the machine
PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS
Problem? – desired objective is not obvious
Problem solving?
process of generating solution for given situation
Sequence of well defined methods that can handle doubts, inconsistency,
uncertainty and ambiguity

Problem Explore Action Intermediate

Create KB Goal States
Identification Information Selection states
Vacuum Cleaner
–
problem solving
Introduction
• well-known search problem for an agent which works on Artificial
Intelligence

• our vacuum cleaner is our agent

• Goal – clean up the whole area

Understanding
• Two rooms and one vacuum cleaner

• Dirt in both rooms – to be cleaned

• Vacuum cleaner present in any one room

• Goal – clean both rooms

Representation
• Two rooms
Representation
• Two rooms – with dirt

DIRT DIRT
Representation
• Two rooms – with dirt

VC DIRT DIRT

• Vacuum cleaner in any one room

• State representation
8 possible states
1 – Dirt – both rooms – Vacuum cleaner – Left room

VC DIRT DIRT

2 – Dirt – both rooms – Vacuum cleaner – Right room

DIRT VC DIRT
8 possible states
3 – Dirt - right room – Vacuum cleaner – Left room

VC DIRT

4 – Dirt – right room – Vacuum cleaner – Right room

VC DIRT
8 possible states
5 – Dirt – left room – Vacuum cleaner – Left room

VC DIRT

6 – Dirt – left room – Vacuum cleaner – Right room

DIRT VC
8 possible states
7 – No Dirt – both rooms – Vacuum cleaner – Left room

VC

8 – No Dirt – both rooms – Vacuum cleaner – Right room

VC
Formulation
• Possible action
• Move Left
• Move Right
• Clean Dirt
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
Solving
 Problem
• In AI, formally define a problem as
• a space of all possible configurations where each configuration is called a state
• The state-space is the configuration of the possible states and how they connect
to each other e.g. the legal moves between states.
• an initial state
• one or more goal states
• a set of rules/operators which move the problem from one state to the next
• In some cases, we may enumerate all possible states
• but usually, such an enumeration will be overwhelmingly large so we only
generate a portion of the state space, the portion we are currently examining
• we need to search the state-space to find an optimal path from a start state to a
goal state.

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Parag Kulkarni, Prachi Joshi, Artificial Intelligence –Building Intelliegent Systems
State space: Tic-Tac-Toe

Goal: Arrange in horizontal or vertical or diagonal to win

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 State space: 8 Puzzle

The 8 puzzle search space consists of 8! states (40320)

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Categories of problems

Structured problems –goal state defined

Unstructured problems- goal state not known
Linear problems- based on dependent variable
Non linear problems- no dependency between variables
 Problem Types

1. Deterministic or observable (single-state)

2. Non-observable (multiple-state)
3. Non-deterministic or partially observable
4. Unknown state space

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 Problem Types
1. Deterministic or observable(Single-state problems)
• Each state is fully observable and it goes to one
definite state after any action.
• Here , the goal state is reachable in one single action
or sequence of actions.
• Deterministic environments ignore uncertainty.
• Ex- Vacuum cleaner with sensor.

79
 Problem Types
2. Non-observable(Muliple-state problems) / conformant
problems
• Problem – solving agent does not have any information about
the state.
• Solution may or may not be reached.
• Ex- In case of vacuum cleaner , the goal state is to clean the floor rather clean floor. Action is
to suck if there is dirt. So , in non-observable condition , as there is no sensor , it will have to
suck the dirt , irrespective of whether it is towards right or left . Here , the solution space is
the states specifying its movement across the floor.

80
 Problem Types
3. Non-deterministic(partially observable) /
contingency problem
• The effect of action is not clear.
• Percepts provide new information about the
current state.
• Ex- If we take Vacuum cleaner , and now assume that the sensor is
attached to it , then it will suck if there is dirt. Movement of the
cleaner will be based on its current percept.

81
 Problem Types
4. Unknown state space problems
• Typically exploration problems
• States and impact of actions are not known
• Ex- online search that involves acting without compete knowledge of
the next state or scheduling without map.

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 Problem Solving with AI
“ Formulate , Search , Execute “ design for agent

A simple problem-solving agent. It first formulates a goal and a problem,

searches for a sequence of actions that would solve the problem, and then executes the actions
one at a time. When this is complete, it formulates another goal and starts over.
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Searching for solution
• Searching for AI problems involves performing an action to go to one
proper state among possible numerous states of agents

• Thus the process of finding solution can be searching of the best

among all the possible states
Characteristics of AI
• AI problems have large number of combination of solution

• AI program manipulate large number of Symbolic information

• AI problem uses heuristic search to cope with the combination of

exploration of solution

• Ability to learn

• AI problems can be solved with or without the use of AI technique

Water Jug problem
• A Water Jug Problem:
You are given two jugs, a 4-gallon one and a 3-gallon one, a pump which has
unlimited water which you can use to fill the jug, and the ground on which water
may be poured. Neither jug has any measuring markings on it. How can you get
exactly 2 gallons of water in 4-gallon jug?
(x,y) (x,y)
(0,0) (4,0)
(0,3) (1,3)
(3,0) (1,0)
(3,3) (0,1)
(4,2) (4,1)
(2,3)
With out AI
• First pour 3l water in 2nd jug
• X=0,y=3
• Pour 3l water in 2nd jug to x
• X=3,y=0
• Pour the extra water from outside in 2nd jug
• X=3,y=3
• The total capacity of jug 1 is 4 ,so fill the remaining in jug 1 So
• x=4,y=2
• Here 2l water is filled in jug 2
Representation
• State Representation and Initial State

• we will represent a state of the problem as a

• tuple (x, y) where x represents the amount of water in the 4-gallon

jug and y represents the amount of water in the 3-gallon jug.

• Note 0 ≤ x ≤ 4, and 0 ≤ y ≤ 3. Our initial state: (0,0)

Production rules - Formulation

1. Fill 4-gal jug (x,y) → (4,y) where ,x < 4

2. Fill 3-gal jug (x,y) → (x,3) where, y < 3

Production rules - Formulation

3. Empty 4-gal jug on ground (x,y) → (0,y) where, x > 0

4. Empty 3-gal jug on ground (x,y) → (x,0) where, y > 0

Production rules - Formulation

5.Empty some water in 3 gallon jug(x,y) →(x,y-d) where, y>0

6. Empty some water in 4 gallon jug(x,y) →(x-d,y) where, x>0

Production rules - Formulation

7. Pour water from 3-gal jug (x,y) → (4, y - (4 - x)) to fill 4-gal jug x+y ≥ 4
and y > 0

8. Pour water from 4-gal jug (x,y) → (x - (3-y), 3) to fill 3-gal-jug x+y ≥ 3
and x > 0
Production rules - Formulation

9. Pour all of water from 3-gal jug (x,y) → (x+y, 0) into 4-gal jug 0 < x+y
≤ 4 and y ≥ 0

10. Pour all of water from 4-gal jug (x,y) → (0, x+y) into 3-gal jug 0 < x+y
≤ 3 and x ≥0
One solution
Gals in 4-gal jug Gals in 3-gal jug Rule Applied
0 0
1. Fill 4
4 0
8. Pour 4 into 3 to fill
1 3
4. Empty 3
1 0
10. Pour all of 4 into 3
0 1
1. Fill 4
4 1
8. Pour into 3
2 3
 Problem types
• single-state problem-Agent knows exactly what each of its actions
does and it can calculate exactly which state it will be in after any
sequence of actions.
• multiple-state problem-when the world is not fully accessible, the
agent must reason about sets of states that it might get to, rather
than single states.
• contingency problem-the agent may be in need to now calculate a
whole tree of actions, rather than a single action sequence in which
each branch of the tree deals with a possible contingency that might
arise.
• exploration problem-the agent learns a "map“ of the environment,
which it can then use to solve subsequent problems.
Problem Characteristics
• To choose the most appropriate method
• Its necessary to analyse the problem
Problem Characteristics
1. Is the problem Decomposable?
2. Can solution steps to be ignored or undone?
3. Is the problem’s universe predictable?
4. Is the good solution is absolute or relative?
5. Is the solution a state or a path?
6. What is the role of knowledge?
7. Does the task require interaction with a person?
Problem Characteristics
1. Is the problem Decomposable?
2. Can solution steps to be ignored or undone?
3. Is the problem’s universe predictable?
4. Is the good solution is absolute or relative?
5. Is the solution a state or a path?
6. What is the role of knowledge?
7. Does the task require interaction with a person?
Is the problem Decomposable?
• Decomposable problem:

AND logic
Is the problem Decomposable?
• Non - Decomposable problem:
Is the problem Decomposable?
• Non - Decomposable problem:
Problem Characteristics
1. Is the problem Decomposable?
2. Can solution steps to be ignored or undone?
3. Is the problem’s universe predictable?
4. Is the good solution is absolute or relative?
5. Is the solution a state or a path?
6. What is the role of knowledge?
7. Does the task require interaction with a person?
Can solution steps to be ignored or undone?
• Consider following 3 problems

1: proving a theorem or lemma

– some steps can be ignored
– logically derives to a solution
Can solution steps to be ignored or undone?
• Consider following 3 problems

2: 8 puzzle problem

- Recoverable problem
Can solution steps to be ignored or undone?
• Consider following 3 problems

3: chess problem

- Irrecoverable problem
Can solution steps to be ignored or undone?
• Proving a theorem or lemma
• Ignorable
• 8 puzzle problem
• Recoverable
• Chess game
• Irrecoverable
Recovery of the problem plays an important role in determining the complexity
of the control structure
Problem Characteristics
1. Is the problem Decomposable?
2. Can solution steps to be ignored or undone?
3. Is the problem’s universe predictable?
4. Is the good solution is absolute or relative?
5. Is the solution a state or a path?
6. What is the role of knowledge?
7. Does the task require interaction with a person?
Is the problem’s universe predictable?
• 8 puzzle problem – next step is always predictable – normal planning -
certain outcome

• Card game – next step is hidden – use probability for finding –

uncertain problem
Problem Characteristics
1. Is the problem Decomposable?
2. Can solution steps to be ignored or undone?
3. Is the problem’s universe predictable?
4. Is the good solution is absolute or relative?
5. Is the solution a state or a path?
6. What is the role of knowledge?
7. Does the task require interaction with a person?
Is the good solution is absolute or relative?
• Consider this example: Given some facts
1. Deena is a man.
2. Deena is a worker in a company.
3. Deena was born in 1905.
4. All men are mortal.
5. All workers in a factory died when there was an accident in 1952.
6. No mortal lives longer than 100 years.
“Is Deena alive”
Is the good solution is absolute or relative?
1. Deena is a man.
2. Deena is a worker in a company.
3. Deena was born in 1905.
4. All men are mortal.
5. All workers in a factory died when there was an accident in 1952.
6. No mortal lives longer than 100 years.
“Is Deena alive”
Solution 1:
1. Deena is a man.
Solution 2:
2. Deena was born in 1905.
1. Deena is a worker in the company.
3. All men are mortal.
2. All workers in the company died in
4. Now it is 2020, so Siva’s age is 105 years.
1952.
5. No mortal lives longer than 100 years.

Any path problem – Relative solutions

Is the good solution is absolute or relative?
Consideration 2 : Travelling Salesman problem

Travelling salesman problem: Goal : shortest path from source

city to destination city – visiting all cities one by one

Solution : Shortest path – to visit all cities

Best path problem – Absolute solutions

Is the good solution is absolute or relative?
Solution:

Any path problem – Relative solution

Best path problem – Absolute Solution

Problem Characteristics
1. Is the problem Decomposable?
2. Can solution steps to be ignored or undone?
3. Is the problem’s universe predictable?
4. Is the good solution is absolute or relative?
5. Is the solution a state or a path?
6. What is the role of knowledge?
7. Does the task require interaction with a person?
Is the solution a state or a path?
Consideration 1: Inference from the statement

“The bank president ate a dish of pasta salad with the

fork”

Inference: pasta salad was a dish , pasta salad was eaten,

pasta salad consists of pasta….

Solution: state
Is the solution a state or a path?
Consideration 2 : Path problem

Water jug problem: Goal : (2,0)

Solution : path taken to reach goal state from initial
state

Solution: path taken from (0,0) – (2,0)

Problem Characteristics
1. Is the problem Decomposable?
2. Can solution steps to be ignored or undone?
3. Is the problem’s universe predictable?
4. Is the good solution is absolute or relative?
5. Is the solution a state or a path?
6. What is the role of knowledge?
7. Does the task require interaction with a person?
What is the role of knowledge?
• Chess playing
– rules for determining legal moves + some simple control
mechanisms
• News paper story
– scan all daily newspapers + how many supports Modi
jee + how many supports Soina jee for upcoming election
Problem Characteristics
1. Is the problem Decomposable?
2. Can solution steps to be ignored or undone?
3. Is the problem’s universe predictable?
4. Is the good solution is absolute or relative?
5. Is the solution a state or a path?
6. What is the role of knowledge?
7. Does the task require interaction with a person?
Does the task require interaction with a
person?
• Solitary:
• Computer is given with a problem description
• no intermediate communication
• no demand for an explanation
• Conversational:
• Intermediate conversations between person to computer
• User need to provide additional information
• Robotics
Problem Characteristics
1. Is the problem Decomposable?
2. Can solution steps to be ignored or undone?
3. Is the problem’s universe predictable?
4. Is the good solution is absolute or relative?
5. Is the solution a state or a path?
6. What is the role of knowledge?
7. Does the task require interaction with a person?
• https://youtu.be/iaAbUhqXmNo
Problem Analysis and Representation
• Problem definition must satisfy these criteria:
1. Compactness: Solution space should be clearly defined
2. Utility: Compatible with existing systems
3. Soundness: Should not raise false alarm
4. Completeness: Should have all the past details
5. Generality: Able to handle all similar events
6. Transparency: Reasoning should be visible to the user
Performance Measuring
• Various factors needs to be considered in problem solving
• Three outcomes of problem solver
• Finding a solution
• Terminating with failure after search space is exhausted
• Terminating after certain number of iterations
• Reward: if the problem is solved but the amount of time and resource
used needs to be considered
Performance Gain
• Performance gain,

• Problem: Well defined problem or poorly defined

• Time: Time taken to arrive at the solution
• Resource: Storage cost, hardware cost, etc.…
• Result: Success or Failure
Problem Space and Search
• Problem is represented as state space
• Search is a general algorithm for finding path in state space
• The identified path will either lead to solution or dead end
• Search algorithm makes use of control strategy like forward or backward
search
• forward search(data directed)
• Starts search from initial state towards goal state.
• Ex: locating a city from current location
• backward search(goal directed)
• Search stars from goal state towards a Solvable initial state
• Ex: start from target city
 Problem Space and Search
• Strategies to explore the states
• Informed search – No guarantee for solution but high probability of getting solution
-heuristic approach is used to control the flow of solution path
-heuristic approach is a technique based on common sense, rule of
thumb, educated guesses or intuitive judgment
• Uninformed search – generates all possible states in the state space and checks for
the goal state.
- time consuming due to large state space
- used where error in the algorithm has severe consequences

• Parameters for search evaluation

i) completeness: Guaranteed to find a solution within finite time
ii) space and time complexity: memory required and time factor needed
iii) optimality and admissibility: correctness of the solution

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Parag Kulkarni, Prachi Joshi, Artificial Intelligence –Building Intelliegent Systems
Informed Search
• Does not guarantee a solution
• But it ensures high probability of arriving at solution
• Heuristic is a problem specific knowledge or guidance used to
constrain the search and lead to the goal
• Heuristic is based on common sense or rule of thumb, educated
guesses or intuitive judgement
• It helps us to choose the right path when multiple path exist for a
problem
Uninformed Search
• Uninformed search is also referred as blind search
• Generates all possible states in state space and checks for goal state
• It will always find a solution if it exists
• But the method is time consuming since search space is huge
• It is used to benchmark results of other algorithms
Problems in design of search programs
• State representation and identifying relationships between states

• Proper selection of forward and backward movement to determine

optimal path

• Rule selection
Toy problems
1. 8 puzzle problem
• 3x3 board with eight numbered tiles and a blank space.
• A tile adjacent to the blank space can slide into the space.
• objective-to reach the configuration shown on the right of the figure.
Toy problems
1. 8 puzzle problem – search space
Toy problems
1. 8 puzzle problem
Problem formulation:
• States: a state description specifies the location of each of the eight tiles in one of the nine
squares. For efficiency, it is useful to include the location of the blank.
• Initial state: Numbers are not arranged in clockwise order
• Operators: blank moves left, right, up, or down.
• Goal state: state matches the goal configuration shown in previous Figure
• Path cost: each step costs 1, so the path cost is just the length of the path.
Toy problems
2. Tic-tac-toe problem
• Each player marks a 3*3 grid by 'x' and 'o' in turn.
• The player who puts respective mark in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line
wins the game
•If both players fail to reach above criteria and all boxes in the grid are filled,
then the game is draw
Toy problems
2. Tic-tac-toe problem
Toy problems
2. Tic-tac-toe problem
Formulating Tic-tac-toe problem
• Initial state – state in previous figure
• States – Next figure with 'x' and 'o' positions constitutes the states in space
• Operators – Adding 'x' or 'o' in cells one by one
• Goal – To reach final/winning position
• Path cost – Each step costs 1 so that path cost is length of path
Toy problems
3. Missionaries and Cannibals
• Three missionaries and cannibals
• Need to move all the six people from one bank of river to the other
• The boat has a capacity of one of two people
Toy problems
3. Missionaries and Cannibals
Formulating the problem in state space search
• States – sequence of 3 numbers representing number of missionaries,
cannibals and boat.
•Goal state - missionaries and cannibals have reached other side of river
(3,3,1)
•Initial state - (3,3,0)
•Operator - Putting missionary and cannibal in boat such that cannibal does
not outnumber missionary and one/two people in boat
• Path cost – number of crossings
Toy problems
4. The 8-queens problem
• Place eight queens on a chessboard such that no queen attacks any other.
• There are two main kinds of formulation
• The incremental formulation involves placing queens one by one
• The complete-state formulation starts with all 8 queens on the board and moves them around.
•Goal test: 8 queens on board, none attacked
Toy problems
4. The 8-queens problem
Formulating the problem in state space search
Consider the following for incremental formulation:
• States: Any arrangement of 0 to 8 queens on board.
• Initial state: No queens in the board
• Goal state: Queens in each column without targeting
other queens
• Operators: add a queen to any square.
• Path cost: Number of moves
Toy problems
5. Vacuum cleaner problem
Assume that the agent knows its location and the locations of all the pieces of dirt,
and the suction is still in good working order.
• States: It is based on Vacuum cleaner location and dirt location
• Initial state: Any state can be assumed as initial state
• Operators: move left, move right, suck.
• Goal state: no dirt left in any square.
• Path cost: each action costs 1.
Toy problems
5. Vacuum cleaner problem
Real-world problems
• Route finding:
• Defined in terms of locations and transitions along links between
them
• Applications: routing in computer networks, automated travel
advisory systems, airline travel planning systems
Real-world problems
• Touring and traveling salesperson problems:
• “Visit every city on the map at least once and end in Bucharest”
• Needs information about the visited cities
• Goal: Find the shortest tour that visits all cities
• NP-hard, but a lot of effort has been spent on improving the capabilities of
TSP algorithms
Real-world problems
• VLSI layout:
• Place cells on a chip so they don’t overlap and there is room for connecting
wires to be placed between the cells
• Robot navigation:
• Generalization of the route finding problem
• No discrete set of routes
• Robot can move in a continuous space
• Infinite set of possible actions and states
Real-world problems
• Assembly sequencing:
• Automatic assembly of complex objects
• The problem is to find an order in which to assemble the parts of some object