Search in AI

Instructor: Dr. Ayesha Kashif

Riphah International University, Lahore
 Problem Solving
 Historically people viewed the phenomena of intelligence as
strongly related to problem solving.
 They used to think that the person who is able to solve more
and more problems is more intelligent than others.

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 Problem Solving: Hit and Trial
 The classical approach to solving a problem is pretty simple. Given
a problem at hand use hit and trial method to check for various
solutions to that problem.
 This hit and trial approach usually works well for trivial problems
and is referred to as the classical approach to problem solving.

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 Problem Solving: Hit and Trial
 Consider the maze searching problem. The mouse travels
though one path and finds that the path leads to a dead end, it
then back tracks somewhat and goes along some other path
and again finds that there is no way to proceed. It goes on
performing such search, trying different solutions to solve
the problem until a sequence of turns in the maze takes it to
the cheese. Hence, of all the solutions the mouse tries, the
one that reached the cheese was the one that solved the
problem.

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Problem Solving by Searching
Why search ?
 Early works of AI was mainly towards
 proving theorems
 solving puzzles
 playing games

 All AI is search!
 Not totally true (obviously) but more true than you
might think. 

 All life is problem solving !!

 Finding a good/best solution to a problem amongst
many possible solutions.

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 Introduction
 As in this problem:
 A navigation problem
 There are many choices to start
with
 Complexity comes from picking
the right choice now and picking
the right choice at the next
intersection and the intersection
after that.
 Streaming together a sequence of
actions.
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 In contrast in the picture below:
 Complexity ?
 the partial observability that we can't see through the fog where the possible
paths are.
 We can't see the results of our actions and even the actions themselves are
not known.
 This type of complexity will be covered later.

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 What we study now
 Several general-purpose search algorithms that can be used to solve
these problems.
1. Blind/Uninformed search algorithms
 algorithms that are given no information about the problem other than its
definition
 Although some of these algorithms can solve any solvable problem, none
of them can do so efficiently
2. Informed search algorithms/Heuristic
 can do quite well given some guidance on where to look for solutions

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 Blind/Uninformed search algorithms
 Suppose the mouse does not know where and how far is the
cheese and is totally blind to the configuration of the maze.
The mouse would blindly search the maze without any hints
that will help it turning left or right at any junction.
 The mouse will purely use a hit and trial approach and will
check all combinations till one takes it to the cheese. Such
searching is called blind or uninformed searching.

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 Informed search algorithms/Heuristic
 Consider now that the cheese is fresh and the smell of cheese
is spread through the maze. The mouse will now use this
smell as a guide, or heuristic (we will comment on this word
in detail later) to guess the position of the cheese and choose
the best from the alternative choices.
 As the smell gets stronger, the mouse knows that the cheese
is closer. Hence the mouse is informed about the cheese
through the smell and thus performs an informed search in
the maze.
 For now you might think that the informed search will
always give us a better solution and will always solve our
problem.

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 Any-path/non optimal searches
 In any-path/non optimal searches we are concerned with
finding any one solution to our problem.
 As soon as we find a solution, we stop, without thinking that
there might as well be a better way to solve the problem
which might take lesser time or fewer operators.

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 Optimal path searches
 Contrary to this, in optimal path searches we try to find the
best solution. For example, in the diagram the optimal path is
the blue one because it is smaller and requires lesser
operators.
 Hence in optimal searches we find solutions that are least
costly, where cost of the solution may be different for each
problem.

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 Assumptions about the task
environment
 static
 single agent
 deterministic
 observable
 discrete

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Classic AI Search Problems
 Map searching (navigation)

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Classic AI Search Problems
 8-Puzzle

2 1 3 1 2 3

4 7 6 4 5 6

5 8 7 8

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Classic AI Search Problems
 N-Queens
 Problem of placing n chess queens on an n×n chessboard so that
no two queens attack each other
 A solution requires that no two queens share the same row,
column, or diagonal

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Classic AI Search Problems

 5-Queens:

1 2 3 4 5
1

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Classic AI Search Problems

 5-Queens:

1 2 3 4 5
1

5
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Classic AI Search Problems

 5-Queens:

1 2 3 4 5
1

5
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Classic AI Search Problems

 5-Queens:

1 2 3 4 5
1

5
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Classic AI Search Problems

 5-Queens:

1 2 3 4 5
1

5
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Classic AI Search Problems

 5-Queens:

1 2 3 4 5
1

2
Solution !!
No Queen is 3
under Attack
4

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 Missionaries and cannibals
 Three missionaries and three cannibals are on the left bank of
a river.

 There is one boat which can hold one or two people.

 Find a way to get everyone to the right bank, without ever

leaving a group of missionaries in one place outnumbered by
cannibals in that place.

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
Initial State

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
Goal State

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 The River Problem
 A farmer wishes to carry a wolf, a duck and corn across a river, from the
south to the north shore. The farmer has a small rowing boat. The boat
can only carry at most the farmer and one other item.
 If left unattended the wolf will eat the duck and the duck will eat the
corn.

Farmer, Wolf,
Duck and Corn
River River boat

boat
Farmer, Wolf,
Duck and Corn
How can the farmer safely transport the wolf, the duck and the corn to
the opposite shore?
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Problem Solving by Searching

Problem Formulation
 Search Problem Formulation
 Agent:entity that perceives its environment and acts upon
that environment
 State: a configuration of the agent and its environment

 Initial State: the state in which the agent begins

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 Search Problem Formulation
 Actions: choices that can be made in a state
ACTIONS(s) returns the set of actions that can be executed in
state s

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 Search Problem Formulation
 Transition Model
A description of what state results from performing any
applicable action in any state
RESULT(s, a) returns the state resulting from performing
action a in state s

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 Search Problem Formulation
 State Space
the set of all states reachable from the initial state by any
sequence of actions

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 Search Problem Formulation
 Goal Test
way to determine whether a given state is a goal state
 Path Cost
numerical cost associated with a given path

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 Search Problem Formulation
 Solution:
 a sequence of actions that leads from the initial state to a goal
state
 Optimal Solution
 a solution that has the lowest path cost among all solutions

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 Problem Formulation
A Problem Space consists of

 The current state of the world (initial state)

 A description of the actions we can take to transform one state

of the world into another (operators or successor
function).

 A description of the desired state of the world (goal state),

this could be implicit or explicit.

 A solution consists of the goal state, or a path to the goal state.

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Classic AI Search Problems
 Map searching (navigation)

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 Problem Formulation
8-Puzzle Problem

Initial State Operators Goal State

2 1 3 Slide blank square left. 1 2 3

4 7 6 Slide blank square right. 4 5 6
5 8 …. 7 8

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 Problem Formulation
8-Puzzle Problem
Representing states:
 For the 8-puzzle

 3 by 3 array
 5, 6, 7 5 6 7
 8, 4, BLANK
 3, 1, 2 8 4

 A vector of length nine 3 1 2

 5, 6, 7, 8, 4, BLANK, 3, 1, 2

 A list of facts
 Upper_left = 5
 Upper_middle = 6
 Upper_right = 7
37  Middle_left = 8
 Problem Formulation
8-Puzzle Problem
 Specifying operators
There are often many ways to specify the operators, some will be
much easier to implement...

• Move 1 left
• Move 1 right
• Move 1 up
• Move 1 down 5 6 7
• Move 2 left • Move Blank left
• Move 2 right • Move Blank right 8 4
• Move 2 up • Move Blank up
• Move 2 down • Move Blank down
• Move 3 left
3 1 2
• Move 3 right
• Move 3 up
• Move 3 down
• Move 4 left
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• …
 Problem Formulation
8-Puzzle Problem
1 2 3 1 2 3
4 8 4 5 6
7 6 5 7 8

Initial state Goal state

Operators: slide blank up, slide blank down, slide blank left,
slide blank right

1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
4 8 4 8 5 4 8 5 4 5 4 5 4 5 6
7 6 5 7 6 7 6 7 8 6 7 8 6 7 8

Solution: sb-down, sb-left, sb-up,sb-right, sb-down

Path cost: 5 steps to reach the goal
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 Missionaries and cannibals
 Three missionaries and three cannibals are on the left bank of
a river.

 There is one boat which can hold one or two people.

 Find a way to get everyone to the right bank, without ever

leaving a group of missionaries in one place outnumbered by
cannibals in that place.

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 Missionaries and cannibals
 States: three numbers (i, j, k) representing the number of
missionaries, cannibals, and boats on the left bank of the
river.
 Initial state: (3, 3, 1)
 Operators: take one missionary, one cannibal, two
missionaries, two cannibals, one missionary and one cannibal
across the river in a given direction
 Goal Test: reached state (0, 0, 0)?
 Path Cost: Number of crossings.

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
(3,3,1): Initial State

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
A missionary and cannibal cross

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
(2,2,0)

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
One missionary returns

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
(3,2,1)

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
Two cannibals cross

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
(3,0,0)

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
A cannibal returns

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
(3,1,1)

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
Two missionaries cross

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
(1,1,0)

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
A missionary and cannibal return

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
(2,2,1)

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
Two Missionaries cross

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
(0,2,0)

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
A cannibal returns

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
(0,3,1)

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
Two cannibals cross

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
(0,1,0)

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
A cannibal returns

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
(0,2,1)

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
The last two cannibals cross

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
(0,0,0) : Goal State

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 Missionaries and Cannibals
Solution = the sequence of actions within the path :
[(3,3,1)→ (2,2,0)→(3,2,1) →(3,0,0) →(3,1,1)
→(1,1,0) →(2,2,1) →(0,2,0) →(0,3,1) →(0,1,0) →
(0,2,1) →(0,0,0)]
Cost = 11 crossings

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 The River Problem
 A farmer wishes to carry a wolf, a duck and corn across a river, from the
south to the north shore. The farmer has a small rowing boat. The boat
can only carry at most the farmer and one other item.
 If left unattended the wolf will eat the duck and the duck will eat the
corn.

Farmer, Wolf,
Duck and Corn
River River boat

boat
Farmer, Wolf,
Duck and Corn
How can the farmer safely transport the wolf, the duck and the corn to
the opposite shore?
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 The River Problem

 The River Problem:

F=Farmer W=Wolf D=Duck C=Corn /=River

-/FWCD

FWCD/-

How can the farmer safely transport the wolf, the duck and the corn to the
opposite shore?
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 The River Problem
Problem formulation:
 State representation: location of farmer and items in both sides of river
[items in South shore / items in North shore] : (FWDC/-, FD/WC, C/FWD
…)
 Initial State: farmer, wolf, duck and corn in the south shore
FWDC/-
 Goal State: farmer, duck and corn in the north shore
-/FWDC
 Operators: the farmer takes in the boat at most one item from
one side to the other side
(F-Takes-W, F-Takes-D, F-Takes-C, F-Takes-Self [himself only])
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 Path cost: the number of crossings
The River Problem
 Problem solution: (path Cost = 7)
 While there are other possibilities here is one 7 step solution to the river
problem

F D D F W D
F-Takes-D F-Takes-S F-Takes-W

F W D C W C F W C C
Initial State WC/FD FWC/D C/FWD

F-Takes-D

F W D C W C F W C W

F-Takes-D F-Takes-S F-Takes-C

F D D F D C
Goal State FD/WC D/FWC FDC/W
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 Summary
 Search: process of constructing sequences of actions that achieve a goal given
a problem.

 It is assumed that the environment is observable,

deterministic, static and completely known.

 Goal formulation is the first step in solving problems by searching. It

facilitates problem formulation.

 Formulating a problem requires specifying five components: State

representation, Initial state, Goal state, Operators (actions), and Path cost
function.
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 Task
During the lecture you went through some of the search
problems. Find a search problem and identify the following:
1. State representation
2. The Initial state
3. Goal State
4. Operators
5. Solution
6. Path Cost

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