HUMAN- COMPUTER I NTERACTION [ HCI ]

CSSE502 | [an Introduction to Artificial Intelligence]

Software–Engineering Diploma Computer Science Dept.
Helwan University

Lecture 3
Problem Solving as Search
& State Space Search
3.1 Solving Problems by Searching
▪ Types of Agents (Reflex vs. Planning) - State Space Search -
Example: Tic-Tac-Toe Game - Example: Mechanical Fault
Diagnosing - How human beings think? - Heuristic Search
3.2 State Space Search Graph & Strategies
▪ Search Problem Components - State Space & State Space
Graph - Examples: Vacuum World, The 8-Puzzle, Romania,
etc. - State Space Search Strategies - Selecting Search Strategy Faculty of
3.3 Basic Idea of Search & the Backtracking Search Algorithm Computers &
▪ Search: Basic idea - Search Tree - Tree Search Algorithm- Artificial Intelligence
Outline & Example - Handling Repeated States - Backtracking
Search Algorithm & Data Structures Spring 2024
Lecture 3: Solving Problem by Searching,
.. & .. State Space Search Strategies and Structures
3.1 Solving problems by Searching
▪ Solving Problems by Searching ▪ Example: Tic-Tac-Toe
▪ Types of Agents (Reflex vs. Planning) ▪ Example: Traveling Salesperson
▪ State Space Search ▪ State Space Search Strategies
▪ Example: Tic-Tac-Toe Game ▪ Selecting Search Strategy
▪ Example: Mechanical Fault Diagnosing
3.3 Basic Idea of Search & the Backtracking Search
▪ How human beings think? Algorithm
▪ Heuristic Search ▪ Search: Basic idea
3.2 State Space Search Graph & Strategies ▪ Search Tree
▪ Search Problem Components ▪ Tree Search Algorithm Outline
▪ Example: Romania ▪ Tree Search Example
▪ State Space & State Space Graph ▪ Handling Repeated States
▪ Example: Vacuum World ▪ Backtracking Search
▪ Example: The 8-Puzzle ▪ Backtracking Algorithm Data Structures
▪ Example: Robot Motion Planning ▪ Backtracking Algorithm
3.4 Practice Exercises (Solved Problems)
Resources for this lecture
• This lecture covers the following chapters:
• Chapter 3 (Solving Problems by Searching; only sections 3.1,
3.2, & 3.3) from Stuart J. Russell and Peter Norvig, "Artificial
Intelligence: A Modern Approach," Third Edition (2010), by
Pearson Education Inc.
.. AND ..
• Part II (pages 41 to 45) and Chapter 3 (Structures and
Strategies for State Space Search; only sections 3.0, 3.1, and
3.2) from George F. Luger, "Artificial Intelligence: Structures
and strategies for complex problem solving, " Fifth Edition
(2005), Pearson Education Limited. 3
Solving Problems by SEARCHING
 Types of Agents
a Reflex Agent : a Planning agent :

Considers how the world IS Considers how the world WOULD BE

• Choose action based on current • Decisions based on (hypothesized)
percept. consequences of actions.
• Do not consider the future • Must have a model of how the world
consequences of actions. evolves in response to actions.
• Must formulate a goal.

Source: D. Klein, P. Abbeel

State Space Search
Problems are solved by searching among alternative choices.

o Humans consider several alternative strategies on their way

to solving a problem.

o A Chess player considers a few alternative moves.

o A mathematician chooses from a different strategies to
find a proof for a theorem.

o A physician evaluates several possible diagnoses.

Example: Tic-Tac-Toe Game

X X X
X X X
X X X

O O O
X X X O X X O X X X
O O O
Example: Mechanical Fault Diagnosing
Start ask:
What is the problem?

Engine trouble
ask:
Transmission
ask:………
breaks
ask: ……
…
Does the car start?
Yes No

Engine starts Engine won’t start ask:

ask:………. Will engine turn over?

Yes No battery
Yes
ok
Turn over Won’t turn over ask: No
ask: …….. Do lights come on? battery
dead
How Human Beings Think ..?
• Human beings do not search the entire state space
(exhaustive search).
• Only alternatives that experience has shown to be effective
are explored.
• Human problem solving is based on judgmental rules that
limit the exploration of search space to those portions of
state space that seem somehow promising.
• These judgmental rules are known as “heuristics”.
Heuristic Search
• A heuristic is a strategy for selectively exploring the search
space.
• It guides the search along lines that have a high probability of
success.
• It employs knowledge about the nature of a problem to find a
solution.
• It does not guarantee an optimal solution to the problem but
can come close most of the time.
• Human beings use many heuristics in problem solving.
 Exercises
What have we learned?
▪ Define the following terms:
▪ State Space Graph,
▪ Exhaustive Search, and ..
▪ Heuristics.

▪ Describe briefly the difference between a

Planning Agent & a Reflex Agent.

▪ Give examples of Heuristics that human beings

employ in any domain.
 Up Next ..
Additional Section 3.2
Resources
▪ Searching:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0yCDZe6Tnk
▪ State Space Problems:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngkXAcjeNWE
Lecture 3: Solving Problem by Searching,
.. & .. State Space Search Strategies and Structures
3.1 Solving problems by Searching
▪ Solving Problems by Searching ▪ Example: Tic-Tac-Toe
▪ Types of Agents (Reflex vs. Planning) ▪ Example: Traveling Salesperson
▪ State Space Search ▪ State Space Search Strategies
▪ Example: Tic-Tac-Toe Game ▪ Selecting Search Strategy
▪ Example: Mechanical Fault Diagnosing
3.3 Basic Idea of Search & the Backtracking Search
▪ How Human Beings Think? Algorithm
▪ Heuristic Search ▪ Search: Basic idea
3.2 State Space Search Graph & Strategies ▪ Search Tree
▪ Search Problem Components ▪ Tree Search Algorithm Outline
▪ Example: Romania ▪ Tree Search Example
▪ State Space & State Space Graph ▪ Handling Repeated States
▪ Example: Vacuum World ▪ Backtracking Search
▪ Example: The 8-Puzzle ▪ Backtracking Algorithm Data Structures
▪ Example: Robot Motion Planning ▪ Backtracking Algorithm
3.4 Practice Exercises (Solved Problems)
Search
We will consider the problem of designing goal-based
agents in fully observable, deterministic, discrete,
known environments.
Start State

Goal State
Search

We will consider the problem of designing goal-based

agents in fully observable, deterministic, discrete, known
environments.

The agent must find a sequence of actions that reaches the

goal. The performance measure is defined by:
(a) reaching the goal, and ..
(b) how “expensive” the path to the goal is.
Search Problem Components
Initial
Initial state State
Actions
Transition model
What state results from
performing a given action
in each state?
Goal state
Solution Path
Path cost
Assume that it is a sum of Goal
nonnegative step costs State

The optimal solution is the sequence of actions that gives the

lowest path cost for reaching the goal.
 Example: Romania
- On vacation in Romania; currently in Arad.
- Flight leaves tomorrow from Bucharest.

Initial state
o Arad
Actions
o Go from one city to another
Transition Model
o If you go from city A to
city B, you end up in city B
Goal State
o Bucharest
Path Cost
o Sum of edge costs (total distance traveled)
State Space
The initial state, actions, and transition model define the state
space of the problem;
• The set of all states reachable from initial state by any
sequence of actions.
• Can be represented as a directed graph where the
nodes are states and links between nodes are actions.

What is the state space for the Romania problem?

State Space

An AI problem can be represented as a state space graph.

A graph is a set of nodes and links that connect them.
Graph theory:
o Labeled graph. ○ Parent.
o Directed graph. ○ Child.
o Path. ○ Sibling.
o Rooted graph. ○ Ancestor.
o Tree. ○ Descendant.
State Space
Graph Theory, Kônigsberg Bridges Problem,
& Euler Tour ..

Riverbank 1

4
River

Island 1 1 Island 2

Riverbank 2
State Space
A state space is represented by four-tuple [N, A, S, GD].
o N, is the set of nodes or states of the graph. These
correspond to the states in the problem-solving process.
o A, is the set of arcs between nodes. These correspond to
the steps in a problem-solving process.
o S, a nonempty subset of N, contains the start-state (s) of
the problem.
o GD, a nonempty subset of N, contains the goal-state(s) of
the problem. The states in GD are described using either:
o A measurable property of the states encountered in
the search.
o A property of the solution path developed in the
search (a solution path is a path through this graph
from a node in S to a node in GD).
 Example: Vacuum World

o States:
o Agent location and dirt location
o How many possible states?
o What if there are n possible locations?
o The size of the state space grows exponentially
with the “size” of the world!
o Actions:
o Left, right, suck.
o Transition Model .. ?
 Example: Vacuum World State Space Graph

o Transition Model:
Example: the 8-Puzzle
o States
o Locations of tiles
o 8-puzzle: 181,440 states (9!/2)
o 15-puzzle: ~10 trillion states
o 24-puzzle: ~1025 states
o Actions
o Move blank left, right, up, down
o Path Cost
o 1 per move
Example: Robot Motion Planning

o States
o Real-valued joint parameters (angles, displacements).
o Actions
o Continuous motions of robot joints.
o Goal State
o Configuration in which object is grasped.
o Path Cost
o Time to execute, smoothness of path, etc.
Example: Tic-Tac-Toe
• Nodes(N): all the different configuration of Xs and Os that
the game can have.
• Arcs (A): generated by legal moves by placing an X or an O
in unused location.
• Start state (S): an empty board.
• Goal states (GD): a board state having three Xs in a row,
column, or diagonal.
• The arcs are directed, then no cycles in the state space,
directed acyclic graph (DAG).
• Complexity: 9! Different paths can be generated.
Example: Traveling Salesperson

A salesperson has five cites to visit and ten must return home.
• Nodes(N): represent 5 cites.
• Arcs(A): labeled with weight indicating the cost of traveling
between connected cites.
• Start state(S): a home city.
• Goal states(GD): an entire path contains a complete circuit
with minimum cost.
• Complexity: (n-1)! Different cost-weighted paths can be
generated.
State Space Search Strategies

There are two distinct ways for searching a state space graph:

▪ Data-Driven Search: (Forward chaining)

Start searching from the given data of a problem instance
toward a goal.

▪ Goal-Driven Search: (Backward chaining)

Start searching from a goal state to facts or data of the given
problem.
State Space Search Strategies ..
Selecting Search Strategy
Data-Driven Search is suggested if:
o The data are given in the initial problem statement.
o There are few ways to use the given facts.
o There are large number of potential goals.
o It is difficult to form a goal or hypothesis.

Goal- Driven Search is appropriate if:

o A goal is given in the problem statement or can easily
formulated.
o There are large number of rules to produce a new facts.
o Problem data are not given but acquired by the problem
solver.
 Exercises
What have we learned?
▪ Define the following terms: Path, Rooted Graph, Tree.
▪ Describe using drawing the Kongsberg problem "Euler Tour."
▪ Determine whether goal-driven or data-driven search would
be preferable for solving each of the following problems.
Justify your answer.
▪ You have met a person who claims to be your distant
cousin, with a common ancestor named John Doe. You
would like to verify her claim.
▪ Another person claims to be your distant cousin. He
doesn't know the common ancestor's name but knows
that it was no more than eight generations back. You
would like to either find this ancestor or determine that
she didn't exist.
▪ A theorem prover for plane geometry.
 Up Next ..
Additional Section 3.3
Resources
▪ Backward & Forward Chaining:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhTt-GG7PiQ
Lecture 3: Solving Problem by Searching,
.. & .. State Space Search Strategies and Structures
3.1 Solving problems by Searching
▪ Solving Problems by Searching ▪ Example: Tic-Tac-Toe
▪ Types of Agents (Reflex vs. Planning) ▪ Example: Traveling Salesperson
▪ State Space Search ▪ State Space Search Strategies
▪ Example: Tic-Tac-Toe Game ▪ Selecting Search Strategy
▪ Example: Mechanical Fault Diagnosing
3.3 Basic Idea of Search & the Backtracking Search
▪ How human beings think? Algorithm
▪ Heuristic Search ▪ Search: Basic idea
3.2 State Space Search Graph & Strategies ▪ Search Tree
▪ Search Problem Components ▪ Tree Search Algorithm Outline
▪ Example: Romania ▪ Tree Search Example
▪ State Space & State Space Graph ▪ Handling Repeated States
▪ Example: Vacuum World ▪ Backtracking Search
▪ Example: The 8-Puzzle ▪ Backtracking Algorithm Data Structures
▪ Example: Robot Motion Planning ▪ Backtracking Algorithm
3.4 Practice Exercises (Solved Problems)
Search ..?
Given:
✓ Initial state
✓ Actions
✓ Transition model
✓ Goal state
✓ Path cost

How do we find the optimal solution?

Search: Basic idea

o Let’s begin at the start state and expand it by making a

list of all possible successor states.

o Maintain a frontier or a list of unexpanded states.

o At each step, pick a state from the frontier to expand.

o Keep going until you reach a goal state.

o Try to expand as few states as possible.

Search: Basic idea

Start
Search: Basic idea
Search: Basic idea
Search: Basic idea
Search: Basic idea
Search: Basic idea
Search: Basic idea
Search: Basic idea
Search: Basic idea
Search: Basic idea
Search: Basic idea
Search: Basic idea
 Starting
Search Tree (the What-if tree) State

“What if” tree of sequences of actions and Action

outcomes; Successor
▪ I.e., When we are searching, we are not acting State

in the world, merely “thinking” about the

possibilities.
▪ The root node corresponds to the starting state.
▪ The children of a node correspond to the …
successor states of that node’s state.
Frontier
▪ A path through the tree corresponds to a
Goal
sequence of actions.
State
▪ A solution is a path ending in the goal state
Nodes vs. States ..? A state is a representation of the world, while a node is a data
structure that is part of the search tree. Node must keep pointer to parent, path
cost, possibly other info.
Tree Search Algorithm Outline

Initialize the frontier using the starting state.

While the frontier is not empty:

• Choose a frontier node according to search strategy

and take it off the frontier.

• If the node contains the goal state, return solution.

• Else expand the node and add its children to the

frontier.
 Tree Search Example

Start: Arad
Goal: Bucharest
 Tree Search Example

Start: Arad
Goal: Bucharest
 Tree Search Example

Start: Arad
Goal: Bucharest
Handling Repeated States
- Initialize the frontier using the starting state
- While the frontier is not empty
- Choose a frontier node according to search strategy
and take it off the frontier.
- If the node contains the goal state, return solution
Else expand the node and add its children to the
frontier.

To handle repeated states:

Every time you expand a node, add that state to the
explored set; do not put explored states on the frontier
again.
Every time you add a node to the frontier, check
whether it already exists with a higher path cost, and if
yes, replace that node with the new one.
Backtracking Search

“Backtracking is a technique for systematically trying all

paths through a state space”
It begins at the start state and pursues a path until:
• Finding a goal, then quit and return the solution path.
• Finding a dead end, then backtrack to the most recent
unexamined node and continue down one of its
branches.
Backtracking Search

Start
Node

Dead Dead Dead Dead

End End End End
Backtracking Algorithm Data Structures

o State List (SL): lists the states in the current path being
tried. If the goal is found, then it contains the solution
path.
o New State List (NSL): contains nodes a waiting
evaluation.
o Dead Ends (DE): lists states whose descendants have
failed to contain a goal node.
o Current State (CS): a state currently under consideration.
 the Backtracking Algorithm
Function Backtrack;
Begin
SL := [Start]; NSL := [Start]; CS := Start;
while NSL# [ ] do
begin
if CS = goal (or meets goal description) then return (SL);
if CS has no children (excluding nodes already on DE, SL, and NSL)
then begin
while SL is not empty and CS = the first element of SL do
begin
add CS to DE;
remove first element from SL;
remove first element from NSL;
CS := first element of NLS;
end;
add CS to SL;
end
else begin
place children of CS on NSL; (except nodes on DE, SL, or NSL)
CS := first element of NSL;
add CS to SL;
end;
end;
return FAIL;
end;
 the Backtracking Algorithm
SL = [A]; NSL = [A];
DE = [ ]; CS = A;

SL := [Start]; NSL := [Start]; CS := Start;

while NSL# [ ] do
if CS = goal (or meets goal description)
then return (SL);
if CS has no children (excluding nodes
already on DE, SL, and NSL)
then …
…
…
else …
 the Backtracking Algorithm
SL = [A]; NSL = [A];
DE = [ ]; CS = A;

…
…
else
place children of CS on NSL; (except nodes on
DE, SL, or NSL)
CS := first element of NSL;
add CS to SL;
end;
…..
 the Backtracking Algorithm
SL = [B A]; NSL = [B C D A];
DE = [ ]; CS = B;

…
…
else
place children of CS on NSL; (except nodes on
DE, SL, or NSL)
CS := first element of NSL;
add CS to SL;
end;
…..
 the Backtracking Algorithm
SL = [E B A]; NSL = [E F B C D A];
DE = [ ]; CS = E;

…
…
else
place children of CS on NSL; (except nodes on
DE, SL, or NSL)
CS := first element of NSL;
add CS to SL;
end;
…..
 the Backtracking Algorithm
SL = [H E B A]; NSL = [H I E F B C D A];
DE = [ ]; CS = H;
….
if CS has no children (excluding nodes
already on DE, SL, and NSL)
then …
while SL is not empty and CS =
the first element of SL do
begin
add CS to DE;
remove first element from SL;
remove first element from NSL;
CS := first element of NLS;
end;
add CS to SL;
else …
 the Backtracking Algorithm
SL = [I E B A]; NSL = [I E F B C D A];
DE = [H]; CS = I;
….
if CS has no children (excluding nodes
already on DE, SL, and NSL)
then …
while SL is not empty and CS =
the first element of SL do
begin
add CS to DE;
remove first element from SL;
remove first element from NSL;
CS := first element of NLS;
end;
add CS to SL;
else …
 the Backtracking Algorithm
SL = [E B A]; NSL = [E F B C D A];
DE = [I H]; CS = E;
….
if CS has no children (excluding nodes
already on DE, SL, and NSL)
then …
while SL is not empty and CS =
the first element of SL do
begin
add CS to DE;
remove first element from SL;
remove first element from NSL;
CS := first element of NLS;
end;
add CS to SL;
else …
 the Backtracking Algorithm
SL = [F B A]; NSL = [F B C D A];
DE = [E I H]; CS = F;
 the Backtracking Algorithm
SL = [J F B A]; NSL = [J F B C D A];
DE = [E I H]; CS = J;
 the Backtracking Algorithm
SL = [C A]; NSL = [C D A];
DE = [B F J E I H]; CS = C;
 the Backtracking Algorithm
SL = [G C A]; NSL = [G C D A];
DE = [B F J E I H]; CS = G;
 Exercises
What have we learned?
▪ The following are two problems that can be solved
using state-space search techniques. You should:
▪ Suggest a suitable representation for the problem
state.
▪ State what the initial and final states are in this
representation.
▪ State the available operators/rules for getting from
one state to the next, giving any conditions on
when they may be applied.
▪ Draw the first two levels of the directed state-
space graph for the given problem.
 Exercises
What have we learned?
▪ [Problem # 1] The Cannibals and Missionaries problem: "Three
cannibals and three missionaries come to a crocodile infested
river. There is a boat on their side that can be used by either
one or two persons. If cannibals outnumber the missionaries at
any time, the cannibals eat the missionaries. How can they use
the boat to cross the river so that all missionaries survive?"
Formalize the problem in terms of state-space search.
▪ [Problem # 2] A farmer with his dog, rabbit and lettuce come to
the east side of a river they wish to cross. There is a boat at the
river’s edge, but of course only the farmer can row. The boat
can only hold two things (including the rower) at any one time.
If the dog is ever left alone with the rabbit, the dog will eat it.
Similarly, if the rabbit is ever left alone with the lettuce, the
rabbit will eat it. How can the farmer get across the river so that
all four characters arrive safely on the other side?
 Up Next ..
Additional Section 3.4
(video lesson)
Resources
▪ Backtracking (Solving a Maze – C++):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBC_Fd8EE8A
▪ N Queen Problem | Backtracking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DeznFqrgAI
▪ Sudoku (Visualisation) | Backtracking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vWRZiDUGHU

Thank you!