MODULE 2: UNIT 1 INTRODUCTION TO STATE SPACE SEARCH

1.0 INTRODUCTION
In computer science, a search algorithm, broadly speaking, is an algorithm for finding an item
with specified properties among a collection of items. The items may be stored individually as
records in a database; or may be elements of a search space defined by a mathematical formula
or procedure, such as the roots of an equation with integer variables; or a combination of the two,
such as the Hamiltonian circuits of a graph.
Specifically, Searching falls under Artificial Intelligence (AI). A major goal of AI is to give
computers the ability to think, or in other words, mimic human behavior. The problem is,
unfortunately, computers don't function in the same way our minds do. They require a series of
well-reasoned out steps before finding a solution. Your goal, then, is to take acomplicated task
and convert it into simpler steps that your computer can handle. That conversion from something
complex to something simple is what this unit is primarily about. Learning how to use two
search algorithms is just a welcome side-effect. This unit will explain the background for AI
search and some of the AI search techniques.
2.0 OBJECTIVES
After the end of this unit, you should be able to:
 describe the state space representation
 describe some algorithms
 formulate, when given a problem description, the terms of a state space search problem
 analyse the properties of some algorithms
 analyse a given problem and identify the most suitable search strategy for the problem
 solve some simple problems.
3.0 MAIN CONTENT
3.1 State Space Search
Let us begin by introducing certain terms.
An initial state is the description of the starting configuration of the agent.
An action or an operator takes the agent from one state to another state which is called a
successor state. A state can have a number of successor states.
A plan is a sequence of actions. The cost of a plan is referred to as thepath cost. The path cost is
a positive number, and a common path cost may be the sum of the costs of the steps in the path.
The goal state is the partial description of the solution
3.1.1 Goal Directed Agent
Figure 1: Goal Directed Agent
We have earlier discussed about an intelligent agent. In this unit we will study a type of
intelligent agent which we will call a goal directed agent. A goal directed agent needs to achieve
certain goals. Such an agent selects its actions based on the goal it has. Many problems can be
represented as a set of states and a set of rules of how one state is transformed to another. Each
state is an abstract representation of the agent's environment. It is an abstraction that denotes a
configuration of the agent.
Let us look at a few examples of goal directed agents.
1. 15-puzzle: The goal of an agent working on a 15-puzzle problem may be to reach a
configuration which satisfies the condition that the top row has the tiles 1, 2 and 3. The details of
this problem will be described later.
2. The goal of an agent may be to navigate a maze and reach the HOME position.
The agent must choose a sequence of actions to achieve the desired goal.
3.1.2 State Space Search Notations
Now let us look at the concept of a search problem.
Problem formulation means choosing a relevant set of states toconsider, and a feasible set of
operators for moving from one state to another.
Search is the process of considering various possible sequences of operators applied to the initial
state, and finding out a sequence which culminates in a goal state.
3.2 Problem Space
What is problem space?
A problem space is a set of states and a set of operators. The operators map from one state to
another state. There will be one or more states that can be called initial states, one or more states
which we need to reach what are known as goal states and there will be states in between initial
states and goal states known as intermediate states. So what is the solution? The solution to the
given problem is nothing but a sequence of operators that map an initial state to a goal state. This
sequence forms a solution path. What is the best solution? Obviously the shortest path from the
initial state to the goal state is the best one. Shortest path has only a few operations compared to
all other possible solution paths. Solution path forms a tree structure where each node is a state.
So searching is nothing but exploring the tree from the root node.
3.2.1 Search Problem
We are now ready to formally describe a search problem.
A search problem consists of the following:
 S: the full set of states
 s0: the initial state
 A:S→S is a set of operators
 G is the set of final states. Note that G ⊆S
These are schematically depicted in Figure 2.

The search problem is to find a sequence of actions which transforms the agent from the initial
state to a goal state g∈G. A search problem is represented by a 4-tuple {S, s0, A, G}.
S: set of states
s0∈S: initial state
A: S􀀀 S operators/ actions that transform one state to another state G: goal, a set of states. G ⊆S
This sequence of actions is called a solution plan. It is a path from the initial state to a goal state.
A plan P is a sequence of actions.
P = {a0, a1, aN} which leads to traversing a number of states {s0, s1, Sn+1∈G}. A sequence of
states is called a path. The cost of a path is a positive number. In many cases the path cost is
computed by taking the sum of the costs of each action.
Representation of search problems
A search problem is represented using a directed graph.
 The states are represented as nodes.
  The allowed actions are represented as arcs.
Searching process
The generic searching process can be very simply described in terms of the following steps:
Do until a solution is found or the state space is exhausted.
1. Check the current state
2. Execute allowable actions to find the successor states.
3. Pick one of the new states.
4. Check if the new state is a solution state
If it is not, the new state becomes the current state and the
process is repeated

3.3 Examples
3.3.1 Illustration of a search process
We will now illustrate the searching process with the help of an example. Consider the problem
depicted in Figure 3.

s0 is the initial state.

The successor states are the adjacent states in the graph.
There are three goal states.
The two successor states of the initial state are generated.

The successors of these states are picked and their successors are generated.
Successors of all these states are generated
The successors are generated.

A goal state has been found.

The above example illustrates how we can start from a given state andfollow the successors, and
be able to find solution paths that lead to agoal state. The grey nodes define the search tree.
Usually the search treeis extended one node at a time. The order in which the search tree is
extended depends on the search strategy.
We will now illustrate state space search with one more example – the pegs and disks problem.
We will illustrate a solution sequence which when applied to the initial state takes us to a goal
state.
3.3.2 Example problem: Pegs and Disks problem
Consider the following problem. We have 3 pegs and 3 disks.
Operators: one may move the topmost disk on any needle to the topmost position to any other
needle.
In the goal state all the pegs are in the needle B as shown in the figure below.

The initial state is illustrated below.

Now we will describe a sequence of actions that can be applied on the initial state.
Step 1: Move A→ C

Step 2: Move A→ B

Step 3: Move A→ C

Step 4: Move B→ A
Step 5: Move C → B

Step 6: Move A→ B

Step 7: Move C→ B

We will now look at another search problem – the 8-queens problem, which can be generalized
to the N-queens problem.
3.3.3 Queens Problem
The problem is to place 8 queens on a chessboard so that no two queens are in the same row,
column or diagonal.
The picture below on the left shows a solution of the 8-queens problem. The picture on the right
is not a correct solution, because some of the queens are attacking each other.
Figure 18: Queens Problem
How do we formulate this in terms of a state space search problem? The problem formulation
involves deciding the representation of the states, selecting the initial state representation, the
description of the operators, and the successor states. We will now show that we can formulate
the search problem in several different ways for this problem.
N queens problem formulation 1
 States: Any arrangement of 0 to 8 queens on the board
 Initial state: 0 queens on the board
 Successor function: Add a queen in any square
 Goal test: 8 queens on the board, none are attacked
The initial state has 64 successors. Each of the states at the next level has 63 successors, and so
on. We can restrict the search tree somewhat by considering only those successors where no
queen is attacking each other. To do that, we have to check the new queen against all existing
queens on the board. The solutions are found at a depth of 8.
N queens problem formulation 2
 States: Any arrangement of 8 queens on the board
 Initial state: All queens are at column 1
 Successor function: Change the position of any one queen
 Goal test: 8 queens on the board, none are attacked

If we consider moving the queen at column 1, it may move to any of the seven remaining
columns.
N queens problem formulation 3
 States: Any arrangement of k queens in the first k rows such that none are attacked
 Initial state: 0 queens on the board
 Successor function: Add a queen to the (k+1) th row so that none are attacked.
 Goal test :8 queens on the board, none are attacked

We will now take up yet another search problem, the 8 puzzle.

3.3.4 Problem Definition - Example, 8 puzzle

In the 8-puzzle problem we have a 3×3 square board and 8 numbered tiles. The board has one
blank position. Bocks can be slid to adjacent blank positions. We can alternatively and
equivalently look upon this as the movement of the blank position up, down, left or right. The
objective of this puzzle is to move the tiles starting from an initial position and arrive at a given
goal configuration.

The 15-puzzle problems is similar to the 8-puzzle. It has a 4×4 square board and 15 numbered
tiles
The state space representation for this problem is summarized below:
States: A state is a description of each of the eight tiles in each location that it can occupy.
Operators/Action: The blank moves left, right, up or down
Goal Test: The current state matches a certain state (e.g. one of the ones shown on previous
slide)
Path Cost: Each move of the blank costs 1
A small portion of the state space of 8-puzzle is shown below. Note that we do not need to
generate all the states before the search begins. The states can be generated when required.

8-puzzle partial state space

3.4 Types of AI Search Techniques
Solution can be found with less information or with more information. It all depends on the
problem we need to solve. Usually when we have more information it will be easy to solve the
problem. The following are the types of AI search namely: Uninformed Search, List search, Tree
search, Graph search, SQL search, Tradeoff Based search, Informed search, Adversarial search.
This module will only deal with uninformed search, informed search and Tree search.
4.0 CONCLUSION
State space search is a process used in the field of computer science, including artificial
intelligence (AI), in which successive configurationsor states of an instance are considered, with
the goal of finding a goal state with a desired property.
Problems are often modelled as a state space, a set of states that a problem can be in. The set of
states forms a graph where two states are connected if there is an operation that can be
performed to transform the first state into the second.
State space search often differs from traditional computer science search methods because the
state space is implicit: the typical state space graph is much too large to generate and store in
memory. Instead, nodes are generated as they are explored, and typically discarded thereafter. A
solution to a combinatorial search instance may consist of the goal state itself, or of a path from
some initial state to the goal state.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, you have learnt that:
 State space search is a process used in the field of computer science, including artificial
intelligence (AI), in which successive configurations or states of an instance are
considered, with the goal of finding a goal state with a desired property
 The search problem is to find a sequence of actions which transforms the agent from the
initial state to a goal state g∈G. A search problem is represented by a 4-tuple {S, s 0 , A,
G}.
 Solution can be found with less information or with more information. It all depends on
the problem we need to solve.