Artificial Intelligence-BSCE-306L

Module 2:
Problem Solving based on Searching
Dr . Saurabh Agrawal
Faculty Id: 20165
School of Computer Science and Engineering
VIT, Vellore-632014
Tamil Nadu, India
3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 1
Outline
Introduction to Problem Solving by searching Methods-State Space search
Uninformed Search Methods
Uniform Cost Search
Breadth First Search
Depth First Search
Depth Limited Search
Iterative Deepening Depth-First-Search
Informed Search Methods
Best First Search
A* Search

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 2

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Problem:
Problems are can resolve by logical algorithms, differential equations, utilizing effective
polynomial and executing all of them with modelling patterns.
 One problem can have multiple solutions by using different problem-solving techniques.
In parallel, some problems have unique solutions and can be only resolved by one method.
It depends on the nature of the problems that how many solutions are possible.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 3

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Problem Solving:
The reflex agent of AI directly maps states into action.
Whenever these agents fail to operate in an environment where the state of mapping is too
large and not easily performed by the agent, then the stated problem dissolves and sent to a
problem-solving domain which breaks the large stored problem into the smaller storage area and
resolves one by one.
The final integrated action will be the desired outcomes.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 4

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Steps Problem Solving:
These are the following steps which require to solve a problem :
•Goal Formulation: This one is the first and simple step in problem-solving. It organizes finite
steps to formulate a target/goals which require some action to achieve the goal. Today the
formulation of the goal is based on AI agents.
•Problem formulation: It is one of the core steps of problem-solving which decides what action
should be taken to achieve the formulated goal. In AI this core part is dependent upon software
agent which consisted of the following components to formulate the associated problem.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 5

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Steps Problem Solving:
Components to formulate the associated problem:
Initial State: This state requires an initial state for the problem which starts the AI agent towards a
specified goal. In this state new methods also initialize problem domain solving by a specific class.
Action: This stage of problem formulation works with function with a specific class taken from the initial
state and all possible actions done in this stage.
Transition: This stage of problem formulation integrates the actual action done by the previous action
stage and collects the final stage to forward it to their next stage.
Goal test: This stage determines that the specified goal achieved by the integrated transition model or
not, whenever the goal achieves stop the action and forward into the next stage to determines the cost
to achieve the goal.
Path costing: This component of problem-solving numerical assigned what will be the cost to achieve
the goal. It requires all hardware software and human working cost.
3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 6
Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Problem Solving Techniques in AI:
Search Algorithms
•Search algorithms are one of the common methods to solve problems in AI.
•The problem solving or rational agents with search algorithms are used to find the best optimal
solution.
•This type of problem-solving technique is often called goal-based.
Time Complexity
Space Complexity
Completeness
Optimality

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 7

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Problem Solving Techniques in AI:
Search Algorithms
A search problem consists of:
A State Space. Set of all possible states where you can be.
A Start State. The state from where the search begins.
A Goal Test. A function that looks at the current state returns whether or not it is the goal
state.
The Solution to a search problem is a sequence of actions, called the plan that transforms the
start state to the goal state.
This plan is achieved through search algorithms.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 8

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
What choices are we searching through?
Problem solving : Action combinations (move 1, then move 3, then move 2...)
Natural language : Ways to map words to parts of speech
Computer vision : Ways to map features to object model
Machine learning : Possible concepts that fit examples seen so far
Motion planning : Sequence of moves to reach goal destination

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 9

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Types of search algorithms

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 10

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Types of search algorithms
Uninformed Search Algorithms:
•The search algorithms in this section have no additional information on the goal node other than
the one provided in the problem definition.
•The plans to reach the goal state from the start state differ only by the order and/or length of
actions.
•Uninformed search is also called Blind search.
•These algorithms can only generate the successors and differentiate between the goal state and
non goal state.
Informed Search Algorithms:
• The algorithms have information on the goal state, which helps in more efficient searching.
•This information is obtained by something called a heuristic Search.
3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 11
Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Steps for State Space Search
Define state space that contains all possible configurations of relevant objects, without
enumerating.
Define some initial states and some goal states.
Specify rules as possible actions.
Good control strategy.

S: (S,A,Action(S),Result(S,A),Cost(S,A))

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Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Example Problems

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Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Example Problems

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 14

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Example Problems

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 15

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Example Problems

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 16

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Example Problems

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 17

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Example Problems

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 18

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Example Problems

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 19

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Example Problems

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 20

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Example Problems

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 21

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Example Problems

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 22

Introduction to Problem Solving by Searching Methods-State Space Search
Sample Search Problems
Graph coloring
Protein folding
Game playing
Airline travel
Proving algebraic equalities
Robot motion planning

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 23

Uniform Cost Search
Uniform Cost Search is an algorithm used to move around a directed weighted search space to
go from a start node to one of the ending nodes with a minimum cumulative cost.
This search is an uninformed search algorithm since it operates in a brute-force manner, i.e. it
does not take the state of the node or search space into consideration.
It is used to find the path with the lowest cumulative cost in a weighted graph where nodes are
expanded according to their cost of traversal from the root node.
This is implemented using a priority queue where lower the cost higher is its priority.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 24

Uniform Cost Search
Algorithm
Insert RootNode into the queue.
Repeat till queue is not empty:
Remove the next element with the highest priority from the queue.
If the node is a destination node, then print the cost and the path and exit
else insert all the children of removed elements into the queue with their cumulative cost as
their priorities.

NOTE: Here rootNode is the starting node for the path, and a priority queue is being
maintained to maintain the path with the least cost to be chosen for the next traversal. In
case 2 paths have the same cost of traversal, nodes are considered alphabetically.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 25

Uniform Cost Search
Example of Uniform Cost Search
Consider the below example, where we need to reach any one of the destination node{G1, G2, G3}
starting from node S. Node{A, B, C, D, E and F} are the intermediate nodes. Our motive is to find the path
from S to any of the destination state with the least cumulative cost. Each directed edge represents the
direction of movement allowed through that path, and its labelling represents the cost is one travels
through that path. Thus Overall cost of the path is a sum of all the paths.
For e.g. – a path from S to G1- {S->A -> G1} whose cost is SA +AG1 = 5 + 9 = 14.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 26

Uniform Cost Search

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 27

Uniform Cost Search
We are going to use a tree to show all the paths possible and also maintain a visited list to keep track of
all the visited nodes as we need not visit any node twice.
Explanation Visited List

Step 1-We will start with start node and check if we have reached

any of the destination nodes, i.e. No thus continue.

Step 2– We reach all the nodes that can be reached from S I .eA, B, S

D. And Since node S has been visited thus added to the visited List.

Now we select the cheapest path first for further expansion, i.e. A

Step 3 – Node B and G1 can be reached from A and since node A S, A

is visited thus move to the visited list.

Since G1 is reached but for the optimal solution, we need to

consider every possible case; thus, we will expand the next

cheapest path, i.e. S->D.

Step 4– Now node D has been visited thus it goes to visited list and S,A,D

now since we have three paths with the same cost, we will choose

alphabetically thus will expand node B

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 28
Uniform Cost Search
Step 5-: From B, we can only reach node C. Now the path with S,A,D,B

minimum weight is S->D->C, i.e. 8. Thus expand C. And B has

now visited node.

Step 6:- From C we can reach G2 and F node with 5 and 7 weights S,A,D,B,C

respectively.

Since S is present in the visited list thus, we are not considering the

C->S path.

Now C will enter the visited list. Now the next node with the

minimum total path is S->D->E, i.e. 8. Thus we will expand E.

Step 7:- From E we can reach only G3. E will move to the visited S,A,D,B,C,E

list.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 29

Uniform Cost Search
Step 8 – In the last, we have 6 active paths S,A,D,B,C,E

. S->B – B is in the visited list; thus will be marked as a dead end.

b.Same for S->A->B->C – C has already been visited thus is

considered a dead end.

Out of the remaining

S->A->G1

S->D->C->G2

S->D->C->F

S->D->E->G3

Minimum is S->D->C->G2

And also, G2 is one of the destination nodes. Thus, we found our

path.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 30

Uniform Cost Search
In this way we can find the path with the minimum cumulative cost from a start node to ending node – S-
>D->C->G2 with cost total cost as 13(marked with green colour).

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 31

Uniform Cost Search
Advantages
•It helps to find the path with the lowest cumulative cost inside a weighted graph having a different cost
associated with each of its edge from the root node to the destination node.
•It is considered to be an optimal solution since, at each state, the least path is considered to be followed.
Disadvantage
•The open list is required to be kept sorted as priorities in priority queue needs to be maintained.
•The storage required is exponentially large.
•The algorithm may be stuck in an infinite loop as it considers every possible path going from the root node
to the destination node.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 32

Breadth First Search
Breadth-first search (BFS) is an algorithm for traversing or searching tree or graph data
structures.
It starts at the tree root (or some arbitrary node of a graph, sometimes referred to as a „search
key‟), and explores all of the neighbor nodes at the present depth prior to moving on to the nodes
at the next depth level.
It is implemented using a queue(FIFO).
BFS traverses the tree “shallowest node first”, it would always pick the shallower branch until it
reaches the solution (or it runs out of nodes, and goes to the next branch).

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 33

Breadth First Search
Algorithm Breadth-first search (BFS)
Declare a queue and insert the starting vertex.
Initialize a visited array and mark the starting vertex as visited.
Follow the below process till the queue becomes empty:
Remove the first vertex of the queue.
Mark that vertex as visited.
Insert all the unvisited neighbors of the vertex into the queue.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 34

Breadth First Search
Algorithm Breadth-first search (BFS)

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Breadth First Search
Step1: Initially queue and visited arrays are empty.

Step2: Push node 0 into queue and mark it visited.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 36

Breadth First Search
Step 3: Remove node 0 from the front of queue and visit the unvisited neighbours and push them into queue.

Step 4: Remove node 1 from the front of queue and visit the unvisited neighbours and push them into queue.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 37

Breadth First Search
Step 5: Remove node 2 from the front of queue and visit the unvisited neighbours and push them into queue.

Step 6: Remove node 3 from the front of queue and visit the unvisited neighbours and push them into queue.
As we can see that every neighbours of node 3 is visited, so move to the next node that are in the front of the queue.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 38

Breadth First Search
Steps 7: Remove node 4 from the front of queue and and visit the unvisited neighbours and push it hem
into queue. As we can see that every neighbours of node 4 are visited, so move to the next node that is in
the front of the queue.

Now, Queue becomes empty, So, terminate these process of iteration.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 39

Breadth First Search
Advantages
BFS will provide a solution if any solution exists.
If there are more than one solution for a given problem, then BFS will provide minimum solution which
requires the least number of steps.
Disadvantage
It requires lot of memory since each level of the tree must be saved into memory to expand the next level.
BFS needs lot of time if the solution is far a way from the root.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 40

Breadth First Search
Time complexity: Equivalent to the number of nodes traversed in BFS until the shallowest
solution. T(n) = 1 + n^2 + n^3 + ... + n^s = O(n^s)
s = the depth of the shallowest solution.
n^i = number of nodes in level i.
Space complexity: Equivalent to how large can the fringe get. S(n) = O(n^s)

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 41

Breadth First Search
Completeness: BFS is complete, meaning for a given search tree, BFS will come up with a solution if it
exists.
Optimality: BFS is optimal as long as the costs of all edges are equal.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 42

Depth First Search
Depth-first search (DFS) is a recursive algorithm to search all the vertices of a tree data
structure or a graph.
The DFS algorithm starts with the initial node of graph G and goes deeper until we find the
goal node or the node with no children.
Because of the recursive nature, stack data structure can be used to implement the DFS
algorithm.
The process of implementing the DFS is similar to the BFS algorithm.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 43

Depth First Search
The step by step process to implement the DFS traversal is given as follows:
1. First, create a stack with the total number of vertices in the graph.
2. Now, choose any vertex as the starting point of traversal, and push that vertex into the stack.
3. After that, push a non-visited vertex (adjacent to the vertex on the top of the stack) to the top
of the stack.
4. Now, repeat steps 3 and 4 until no vertices are left to visit from the vertex on the stack's top.
5. If no vertex is left, go back and pop a vertex from the stack.
6. Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 until the stack is empty.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 44

Depth First Search
The applications of using the DFS algorithm are given as follows:
DFS algorithm can be used to implement the topological sorting.
It can be used to find the paths between two vertices.
It can also be used to detect cycles in the graph.
DFS algorithm is also used for one solution puzzles.
DFS is used to determine if a graph is bipartite or not.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 45

Depth First Search
Algorithm:
Step 1: SET STATUS = 1 (ready state) for each node in G
Step 2: Push the starting node A on the stack and set its STATUS = 2 (waiting state)
Step 3: Repeat Steps 4 and 5 until STACK is empty
Step 4: Pop the top node N. Process it and set its STATUS = 3 (processed state)
Step 5: Push on the stack all the neighbors of N that are in the ready state (whose STATUS = 1)
and set their STATUS = 2 (waiting state)
[END OF LOOP]

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Depth First Search
Pseudocode:

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Depth First Search
Example of DFS algorithm
Now, let's understand the working of the DFS algorithm by using an example. In the example
given below, there is a directed graph having 8 vertices.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 48

Depth First Search
Step 1 - First, push H onto the stack.
STACK: H
Step 2 - POP the top element from the stack, i.e., H, and print it. Now, PUSH all the neighbors of H
onto the stack that are in ready state.
Print: H]STACK: A
Step 3 - POP the top element from the stack, i.e., A, and print it. Now, PUSH all the neighbors of A
onto the stack that are in ready state.
Print: A
STACK: B, D
Step 4 - POP the top element from the stack, i.e., D, and print it. Now, PUSH all the neighbors of D
onto the stack that are in ready state.
Print: D
STACK: B, F
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Depth First Search
Step 5 - POP the top element from the stack, i.e., F, and print it. Now, PUSH all the neighbors of F
onto the stack that are in ready state.
Print: F
STACK: B
Step 6 - POP the top element from the stack, i.e., B, and print it. Now, PUSH all the neighbors of B
onto the stack that are in ready state.
Print: B
STACK: C
Step 7 - POP the top element from the stack, i.e., C, and print it. Now, PUSH all the neighbors of C
onto the stack that are in ready state.
Print: C
STACK: E, G

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Depth First Search
Step 8 - POP the top element from the stack, i.e., G and PUSH all the neighbors of G onto the
stack that are in ready state.
Print: G
STACK: E
Step 9 - POP the top element from the stack, i.e., E and PUSH all the neighbors of E onto the stack
that are in ready state.
Print: E
STACK:

Now, all the graph nodes have been traversed, and the stack is empty.

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Depth First Search
Complexity of Depth-first search algorithm
The time complexity of the DFS algorithm is O(V+E), where V is the number of vertices and E is
the number of edges in the graph.
The space complexity of the DFS algorithm is O(V).

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 52

Depth Limited Search
Depth limited search is the new search algorithm for uninformed search.
The unbounded tree problem happens to appear in the depth-first search algorithm, and it can be
fixed by imposing a boundary or a limit to the depth of the search domain.
We denote this limit by l, and thus this provides the solution to the infinite path problem that
originated earlier in the DFS algorithm.
Thus, Depth limited search can be called an extended and refined version of the DFS algorithm.
In a nutshell, we can say that to avoid the infinite loop status while executing the codes, and depth
limited search algorithm is being executed into a finite set of depth called depth limit.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 53

Depth Limited Search
Algorithm
1. The start node or node 1 is added to the beginning of the stack.
2. Then it is marked as visited, and if node 1 is not the goal node in the search, then we push
second node 2 on top of the stack.
3. Next, we mark it as visited and check if node 2 is the goal node or not.
4. If node 2 is not found to be the goal node, then we push node 4 on top of the stack.
5. Now we search in the same depth limit and move along depth-wise to check for the goal nodes.
6. If Node 4 is also not found to be the goal node and depth limit is found to be reached, then we
retrace back to nearest nodes that remain unvisited or unexplored.
7. Then we push them into the stack and mark them visited.
8. We continue to perform these steps in iterative ways unless the goal node is reached or until all
nodes within depth limit have been explored for the goal.

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Depth Limited Search

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Depth Limited Search

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Depth Limited Search
Advantages
Depth limited search is better than DFS and requires less time and memory space.
DFS assures that the solution will be found if it exists infinite time.
There are applications of DLS in graph theory particularly similar to the DFS.
To combat the disadvantages of DFS, we add a limit to the depth, and our search strategy performs
recursively down the search tree.
Disadvantage
The depth limit is compulsory for this algorithm to execute.
The goal node may not exist in the depth limit set earlier, which will push the user to iterate further
adding execution time.
The goal node will not be found if it does not exist in the desired limit.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 57

Depth Limited Search
Performance Measures
Completeness: The DLS is a incompleteness algorithm in general except the case when the goal node is
the shallowest node, and it is beyond the depth limit, i.e. l < d, and in this case, we never reach the goal
node.
Optimality: The DLS is a non-optimal algorithm since the depth that is chosen can be greater than d
(l>d). Thus DLS is not optimal if l > d
Time complexity is expressed as: It is similar to the DFS, i.e. O(bl), where l is the set depth limit.
Space Complexity is expressed as: It is similar to DFSe. O(bl), where l is specified depth limit.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 58

Iterative Deepening Depth-First-Search
In the uninformed searching strategy, the BFS and DFS have not been so ideal in searching the
element in optimum time and space.
The algorithms only guarantee that the path will be found in exponential time and space.
So we found a method where we can use the amalgamation of space competence of DFS and
optimum solution approach of BFS methods, and there we develop a new method called iterative
deepening using the two of them.
The main idea here lies in utilizing the re-computation of entities of the boundary instead of stocking
them up.
 Every re-computation is made up of DFS and thus it uses less space.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 59

Iterative Deepening Depth-First-Search
Algorithm: Now let us also consider using BFS in iterative deepening search.
1. Consider making a breadth-first search into an iterative deepening search.
2. We can do this by having aside a DFS which will search up to a limit. It first does searching to a
pre-defined limit depth to depth and then generates a route length1.
3. This is done by creating routes of length 1 in the DFS way. Next, it makes way for routes of depth
limit 2, 3 and onwards.
4. It even can delete all the preceding calculation all-time at the beginning of the loop and iterate.
5. Hence at some depth eventually the solution will be found if there is any in the tree because the
enumeration takes place in order.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 60

Iterative Deepening Depth-First-Search
Algorithm:

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 61

Iterative Deepening Depth-First-Search

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 62

Iterative Deepening Depth-First-Search
Example:

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 63

Iterative Deepening Depth-First-Search
Advantages
IDDFS gives us the hope to find the solution if it exists in the tree.
When the solutions are found at the lower depths say n, then the algorithm proves to be efficient and in time.
The great advantage of IDDFS is found in-game tree searching where the IDDFS search operation tries to improve
the depth definition, heuristics, and scores of searching nodes so as to enable efficiency in the search algorithm.
Another major advantage of the IDDFS algorithm is its quick responsiveness. The early results indications are a
plus point in this algorithm. This followed up with multiple refinements after the individual iteration is completed.
Though the work is done here is more yet the performance of IDDFS is better than single BFS and DFS operating
exclusively.
Disadvantage
The time taken is exponential to reach the goal node.
The main problem with IDDFS is the time and wasted calculations that take place at each depth.
The situation is not as bad as we may think of especially when the branching factor is found to be high.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 64

Iterative Deepening Depth-First-Search
Performance Measures:The IDDFS is a completeness and optimal algorithm.

Time complexity is expressed as:

O(bd)and here d is defined as goal depth.

Space Complexity is expressed as:

O(b) and here b is defined as total nodes.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 65

Informed (Heuristic) Search Methods
The algorithms have information on the goal state, which helps in more efficient searching.
This information is obtained by something called a heuristic Search.
Informed search algorithm contains an array of knowledge such as how far we are from the goal, path
cost, how to reach to goal node, etc.
 This knowledge help agents to explore less to the search space and find more efficiently the goal node.
 The informed search algorithm is more useful for large search space.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 66

Informed (Heuristic) Search Methods
Heuristics Function:
Heuristic is a function which is used in Informed Search, and it finds the most promising path.
It takes the current state of the agent as its input and produces the estimation of how close agent is from
the goal.
The heuristic method, however, might not always give the best solution, but it guaranteed to find a good
solution in reasonable time.
 Heuristic function estimates how close a state is to the goal.
 It is represented by h(n), and it calculates the cost of an optimal path between the pair of states.
The value of the heuristic function is always positive.
Admissibility of the heuristic function is given as:
h(n) <= h*(n)
Here h(n) is heuristic cost, and h*(n) is the estimated cost

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 67

Informed (Heuristic) Search Methods
Pure Heuristic Search
Pure heuristic search is the simplest form of heuristic search algorithms. It expands nodes based on their
heuristic value h(n). It maintains two lists, OPEN and CLOSED list. In the CLOSED list, it places those
nodes which have already expanded and in the OPEN list, it places nodes which have yet not been
expanded.
On each iteration, each node n with the lowest heuristic value is expanded and generates all its
successors and n is placed to the closed list. The algorithm continues unit a goal state is found.
In the informed search we will discuss two main algorithms which are given below:
Best First Search Algorithm(Greedy search)
A* Search Algorithm

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 68

Best First Search
Greedy best-first search algorithm always selects the path which appears best at that moment.
 It is the combination of depth-first search and breadth-first search algorithms.
It uses the heuristic function and search.
Best-first search allows us to take the advantages of both algorithms.
With the help of best-first search, at each step, we can choose the most promising node.
In the best first search algorithm, we expand the node which is closest to the goal node and the closest
cost is estimated by heuristic function, i.e.
f(n)= g(n)
Were, h(n)= estimated cost from node n to the goal.
The greedy best first algorithm is implemented by the priority queue.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 69

Best First Search
Algorithm:
1. Step 1: Place the starting node into the OPEN list.
2. Step 2: If the OPEN list is empty, Stop and return failure.
3. Step 3: Remove the node n, from the OPEN list which has the lowest value of h(n), and places it in the
CLOSED list.
4. Step 4: Expand the node n, and generate the successors of node n.
5. Step 5: Check each successor of node n, and find whether any node is a goal node or not. If any
successor node is goal node, then return success and terminate the search, else proceed to Step 6.
6. Step 6: For each successor node, algorithm checks for evaluation function f(n), and then check if the
node has been in either OPEN or CLOSED list. If the node has not been in both list, then add it to the
OPEN list.
7. Step 7: Return to Step 2.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 70

Best First Search
Example:
Consider the below search problem, and we will traverse it using greedy best-first search.
At each iteration, each node is expanded using evaluation function f(n)=h(n) , which is given in the below
table.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 71

Best First Search
Example:
Expand the nodes of S and put in the CLOSED list
•Initialization: Open [A, B], Closed [S]
•Iteration 1: Open [A], Closed [S, B]
•Iteration 2: Open [E, F, A], Closed [S, B]
: Open [E, A], Closed [S, B, F]
•Iteration 3: Open [I, G, E, A], Closed [S, B, F]
: Open [I, E, A], Closed [S, B, F, G]
•Hence the final solution path will be:
S----> B----->F----> G

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 72

Best First Search

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 73

Best First Search
Advantages:
•Best first search can switch between BFS and DFS by gaining the advantages of both the algorithms.
•This algorithm is more efficient than BFS and DFS algorithms.
Disadvantages:
•It can behave as an unguided depth-first search in the worst case scenario.
•It can get stuck in a loop as DFS.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 74

Best First Search
Performance Measure
Time Complexity: The worst case time complexity of Greedy best first search is O(bm).
Space Complexity: The worst case space complexity of Greedy best first search is O(bm). Where, m is
the maximum depth of the search space.
Complete: Greedy best-first search is also incomplete, even if the given state space is finite.
Optimal: Greedy best first search algorithm is not optimal.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 75

A* Search
A* search is the most commonly known form of best-first search.
It uses heuristic function h(n), and cost to reach the node n from the start state g(n). It has combined
features of UCS and greedy best-first search, by which it solve the problem efficiently.
 A* search algorithm finds the shortest path through the search space using the heuristic function.
 This search algorithm expands less search tree and provides optimal result faster.
A* algorithm is similar to UCS except that it uses g(n)+h(n) instead of g(n).

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 76

A* Search
In A* search algorithm, we use search heuristic as well as the cost to reach the node. Hence we can
combine both costs as following, and this sum is called as a fitness number.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 77

A* Search
A* Search Algorithm:
1. Step1: Place the starting node in the OPEN list.
2. Step 2: Check if the OPEN list is empty or not, if the list is empty then return failure and stops.
3. Step 3: Select the node from the OPEN list which has the smallest value of evaluation function (g+h),
if node n is goal node then return success and stop, otherwise
4. Step 4: Expand node n and generate all of its successors, and put n into the closed list. For each
successor n', check whether n' is already in the OPEN or CLOSED list, if not then compute evaluation
function for n' and place into Open list.
5. Step 5: Else if node n' is already in OPEN and CLOSED, then it should be attached to the back pointer
which reflects the lowest g(n') value.
6. Step 6: Return to Step 2.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 78

A* Search
Example
In this example, we will traverse the given graph using the A* algorithm.
The heuristic value of all states is given in the below table so we will calculate the f(n) of each state using
the formula f(n)= g(n) + h(n), where g(n) is the cost to reach any node from start state.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 79

A* Search

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 80

A* Search
Initialization: {(S, 5)}
Iteration1: {(S--> A, 4), (S-->G, 10)}
Iteration2: {(S--> A-->C, 4), (S--> A-->B, 7), (S-->G, 10)}
Iteration3: {(S--> A-->C--->G, 6), (S--> A-->C--->D, 11), (S--> A-->B, 7), (S-->G, 10)}
Iteration 4 will give the final result, as
S--->A--->C--->G
it provides the optimal path with cost 6.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 81

A* Search
Initialization: {(S, 5)}
Iteration1: {(S--> A, 3), (S-->G, 10)}
Iteration2: {(S--> A-->C, 5), (S--> A-->B, 7), (S-->G, 10)}
Iteration3: {(S--> A-->C--->G, 5), (S--> A-->C--->D, 11), (S--> A-->B, 7), (S-->G, 10)}
Iteration 4 will give the final result, as
S--->A--->C--->G
it provides the optimal path with cost 5.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 82

A* Search
Advantages:
•A* search algorithm is the best algorithm than other search algorithms.
•A* search algorithm is optimal and complete.
•This algorithm can solve very complex problems.
Disadvantages:
•It does not always produce the shortest path as it mostly based on heuristics and approximation.
•A* search algorithm has some complexity issues.
•The main drawback of A* is memory requirement as it keeps all generated nodes in the memory, so it is
not practical for various large-scale problems.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 83

A* Search
Complexity
Time Complexity: The time complexity of A* search algorithm depends on heuristic function, and the
number of nodes expanded is exponential to the depth of solution d. So the time complexity is O(b^d),
where b is the branching factor.
Space Complexity: The space complexity of A* search algorithm is O(b^d)

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 84

A* Search
Performance Measure
•Complete: A* algorithm is complete as long as:
Branching factor is finite.
Cost at every action is fixed.
•Optimal: A* search algorithm is optimal if it follows below two conditions:
Admissible: the first condition requires for optimality is that h(n) should be an admissible heuristic for A*
tree search. An admissible heuristic is optimistic in nature.
Consistency: Second required condition is consistency for only A* graph-search.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 85

 Note for Students
This power point presentation is for lecture, therefore it is
suggested that also utilize the text books and lecture notes.

3-Feb-24 Dr. Saurabh Agrawal, SCOPE, DATABASE SYSTEMS, VIT, VELLORE 86