Chapter 2

Solving Problem by Searching

Search algorithms are one of the most important areas of Artificial Intelligence.
In Artificial Intelligence, searching techniques are universal problem-solving methods. Rational
agents or Problem-solving agents in AI mostly used these search strategies or algorithms to solve a
specific problem and provide the best result. Problem-solving agents are the goal-based agents
and use atomic representation.

Searching Algorithm Terminologies:

o Search: Searching is a step by step procedure to solve a search-problem in a given search space. A
search problem can have three main factors:
a. Search Space: Search space represents a set of possible solutions, which a system may have.
b. Start State: It is a state from where agent begins the search.
c. Goal test: It is a function which observe the current state and returns whether the goal state
is achieved or not.
o Search tree: A tree representation of search problem is called Search tree. The root of the search
tree is the root node which is corresponding to the initial state.
o Actions: It gives the description of all the available actions to the agent.
o Transition model: A description of what each action do, can be represented as a transition model.
o Path Cost: It is a function which assigns a numeric cost to each path.
o Solution: It is an action sequence which leads from the start node to the goal node.
o Optimal Solution: If a solution has the lowest cost among all solutions.
Properties of Search Algorithms:
The following are the four essential properties of search algorithms to compare their efficiency.
Completeness: A search algorithm is said to be complete if it guarantees to return a solution if at
least any solution exists for any random input.
Optimality: If a solution found for an algorithm is guaranteed to be the best solution (lowest path
cost) among all other solutions, then such a solution for is said to be an optimal solution.
Time Complexity: is a measure of time for an algorithm to complete its task.
Space Complexity: It is the maximum storage space required at any point during the search, as
the complexity of the problem.

Types of Search Algorithms

Based on the search problems we can classify the search algorithms into uninformed (Blind search)
and informed search (Heuristic search) algorithms.

I. Uninformed/Blind Search:

The uninformed search does not contain any domain knowledge such as closeness, the location of
the goal. It operates in a brute-force way as it only includes information about how to traverse the
tree and how to identify leaf and goal nodes. Uninformed search applies a way in which search tree
is searched without any information about the search space like initial state operators and test for
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the goal, so it is also called blind search. It examines each node of the tree until it achieves the goal
node. It can be divided into six main types:
 Breadth-first search
 Depth-first search
 Depth-Limited-first search
 Iterative deepening depth-first search
 Uniform cost search
 Bidirectional Search

Informed Search
Informed search algorithms use domain knowledge. In an informed search, problem information is
available which can guide the search. Informed search strategies can find a solution more efficiently
than an uninformed search strategy. Informed search is also called a Heuristic search.
A heuristic is a way which might not always be guaranteed for best solutions but guaranteed to
find a good solution in reasonable time. Informed search can solve much complex problem which
could not be solved in another way. An example of informed search algorithms is a traveling
salesman problem. The two widely applied informed search algorithms are:
1. Greedy Search
2. A* Search
Uninformed Search Algorithms
Uninformed search is a class of general-purpose search algorithms which operates in brute force-
way. Uninformed search algorithms do not have additional information about state or search space
other than how to traverse the tree, so it is also called blind search.
Following are the various types of uninformed search algorithms:
 Breadth-first Search
 Depth-first Search
 Depth-limited Search
 Iterative deepening depth-first search
 Uniform cost search
 Bidirectional Search

1. Breadth-First Search:
o Breadth-first search is the most common search strategy for traversing a tree or graph. This algorithm
searches breadthwise in a tree or graph, so it is called breadth-first search.
o BFS algorithm starts searching from the root node of the tree and expands all successor nodes at the
current level before moving to nodes of next level.
o The breadth-first search algorithm is an example of a general-graph search algorithm.
o Breadth-first search implemented using FIFO queue data structure.
Advantages:
o BFS will provide a solution if any solution exists.
o If there is more than one solution for a given problem, then BFS will provide the minimal solution
which requires the least number of steps.

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Disadvantages:
o It requires lots of memory since each level of the tree must be saved into memory to expand the
next level.
o BFS needs lots of time if the solution is far away from the root node.
Example: In the below tree structure, we have shown the traversing of the tree using BFS algorithm
from the root node S to goal node K. BFS search algorithm traverse in layers, so it will follow the path which
is shown by the dotted arrow, and the traversed path will be:
S---> A--->B---->C--->D---->G--->H--->E---->F---->I---->K

Time Complexity: Time Complexity of BFS algorithm can be obtained by the number of nodes
traversed in BFS until the shallowest Node. Where d= depth of the shallowest solution and b is a
node at every state. T (b) = 1+b2+b3+.......+ bd= O (bd)
Space Complexity: Space complexity of BFS algorithm is given by the Memory size of frontier
which is O(bd).
Completeness: BFS is complete, which means if the shallowest goal node is at some finite depth,
then BFS will find a solution.
Optimality: BFS is optimal if path cost is a non-decreasing function of the depth of the node.

2. Depth-First Search
o Depth-first search is a recursive algorithm for traversing a tree or graph data structure.
o It is called the depth-first search because it starts from the root node and follows each path to its
greatest depth node before moving to the next path.
o DFS uses a stack data structure for its implementation.
o The process of the DFS algorithm is similar to the BFS algorithm.
Advantage:
o DFS requires very less memory as it only needs to store a stack of the nodes on the path from root
node to the current node.
o It takes less time to reach to the goal node than BFS algorithm (if it traverses in the right path).
Disadvantage:
o There is the possibility that many states keep re-occurring, and there is no guarantee of finding the solution.
o DFS algorithm goes for deep down searching and sometime it may go to the infinite loop.

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Example: In the below search tree, we have shown the flow of depth-first search, and it will follow the
order as: Root node--->Left node ----> right node.
It will start searching from root node S, and traverse A, then B, then D and E, after traversing E, it
will backtrack the tree as E has no other successor and still goal node is not found. After
backtracking it will traverse node C and then G, and here it will terminate as it found goal node.

Completeness: DFS search algorithm is complete within finite state space as it will expand every
node within a limited search tree.
Time Complexity: Time complexity of DFS will be equivalent to the node traversed by the
algorithm. It is given by: T(n)= 1+ n2+ n3 +.........+ nm=O(nm)
Where, m= maximum depth of any node and this can be much larger than d (Shallowest solution depth)
Space Complexity: DFS algorithm needs to store only single path from the root node, hence space
complexity of DFS is equivalent to the size of the fringe set, which is O(bm).
Optimal: DFS search algorithm is non-optimal, as it may generate a large number of steps or high
cost to reach to the goal node.
3. Depth-Limited Search Algorithm:
A depth-limited search algorithm is similar to depth-first search with a predetermined limit. Depth-
limited search can solve the drawback of the infinite path in the Depth-first search. In this
algorithm, the node at the depth limit will treat as it has no successor nodes further.
AD
Depth-limited search can be terminated with two Conditions of failure:
o Standard failure value: It indicates that problem does not have any solution.
o Cutoff failure value: It defines no solution for the problem within a given depth limit.
Advantages: Depth-limited search is memory efficient.
Disadvantages:
o Depth-limited search also has a disadvantage of incompleteness.
o It may not be optimal if the problem has more than one solution.

Example:

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Completeness: DLS search algorithm is complete if the solution is above the depth-limit.
Time Complexity: Time complexity of DLS algorithm is O(bℓ).
Space Complexity: Space complexity of DLS algorithm is O(b×ℓ).
Optimal: Depth-limited search can be viewed as a special case of DFS, and it is also not optimal
even if ℓ>d.

4. Uniform-Cost Search Algorithm:

Uniform-cost search is a searching algorithm used for traversing a weighted tree or graph. This
algorithm comes into play when a different cost is available for each edge. The primary goal of the
uniform-cost search is to find a path to the goal node which has the lowest cumulative cost.
Uniform-cost search expands nodes according to their path costs from the root node. It can be
used to solve any graph/tree where the optimal cost is in demand. A uniform-cost search algorithm
is implemented by the priority queue. It gives maximum priority to the lowest cumulative cost.
Uniform cost search is equivalent to BFS algorithm if the path cost of all edges is the same.
Advantages: Uniform cost search is optimal because at every state the path with the least cost is chosen.
Disadvantages:
o It does not care about the number of steps involve in searching and only concerned about path cost.
Due to which this algorithm may be stuck in an infinite loop.
Example:

Completeness: Uniform-cost search is complete, such as if there is a solution, UCS will find it.
Time Complexity: Let C* is Cost of the optimal solution, and ε is each step to get closer to the
goal node. Then the number of steps is = C*/ε+1. Here we have taken +1, as we start from state 0
and end to C*/ε. Hence, the worst-case time complexity of Uniform-cost search is O(b1 + [C*/ε])/.
Space Complexity: The same logic is for space complexity so, the worst-case space complexity of
Uniform-cost search is O(b1 + [C*/ε]).
Optimal: Uniform-cost search is always optimal as it only selects a path with the lowest path cost.

5. Iterative Deepening Depth-First Search:

The iterative deepening algorithm is a combination of DFS and BFS algorithms. This search
algorithm finds out the best depth limit and does it by gradually increasing the limit until a goal is
found. This algorithm performs depth-first search up to a certain "depth limit", and it keeps
increasing the depth limit after each iteration until the goal node is found. It combines the benefits
of Breadth-first search's fast search and depth-first search's memory efficiency.
The iterative search algorithm is useful uninformed search when search space is large, and depth of
goal node is unknown.

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Advantages: It combines the benefits of BFS and DFS search algorithm in terms of fast search and
memory efficiency.
Disadvantages: The main drawback of IDDFS is that it repeats all the work of the previous phase.
Example: Following tree structure is showing the iterative deepening depth-first search.

IDDFS algorithm performs various iterations until it does not find the goal node. The iteration
performed by the algorithm is given as:
1'st Iteration-----> A
2'nd Iteration----> A, B, C
3'rd Iteration------>A, B, D, E, C, F, G
4'th Iteration------>A, B, D, H, I, E, C, F, K, G
In the fourth iteration, the algorithm will find the goal node.
Completeness: This algorithm is complete if the branching factor is finite.
Time Complexity: Let's suppose b is the branching factor and depth is d then the worst-case time
complexity is O(bd).
Space Complexity: The space complexity of IDDFS will be O(bd).
Optimal: IDDFS algorithm is optimal if path cost is a non- decreasing function of the depth of the node.

6. Bidirectional Search Algorithm:

Bidirectional search algorithm runs two simultaneous searches, one from initial state called as
forward-search and other from goal node called as backward-search, to find the goal node.
Bidirectional search replaces one single search graph with two small sub-graphs in which one starts
the search from an initial vertex and other starts from goal vertex. The search stops when these two
graphs intersect each other. Bidirectional search can use search techniques such as BFS, DFS, DLS,
etc.
Advantages:
o Bidirectional search is fast.
o Bidirectional search requires less memory
Disadvantages:
o Implementation of the bidirectional search tree is difficult.
o In bidirectional search, one should know the goal state in advance.

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Example: In the below search tree, bidirectional search algorithm is applied.

This algorithm divides one graph/tree into two sub-graphs. It starts traversing from node 1 in the forward
direction and starts from goal node 16 in the backward direction.
The algorithm terminates at node 9 where two searches meet.
Completeness: Bidirectional Search is complete if we use BFS in both searches.
Time Complexity: Time complexity of bidirectional search using BFS is O(bd).
Space Complexity: Space complexity of bidirectional search is O(bd).
Optimal: Bidirectional search is Optimal.

II. Informed Search Algorithms

So far we have talked about the uninformed search algorithms which looked through search space
for all possible solutions of the problem without having any additional knowledge about search
space. But 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 helps 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. Informed search algorithm
uses the idea of heuristic, so it is also called Heuristic search.
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. Hence, heuristic cost should be less than
or equal to the estimated cost.
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 until a goal state is found.
In the informed search we will discuss two main algorithms which are:
o Best First Search Algorithm(Greedy search)
o A* Search Algorithm
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1) Best-First Search Algorithm (Greedy Search):
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). Where, h(n)= estimated cost from node n to the goal.
The greedy best first algorithm is implemented by the priority queue.
Best first search algorithm:
o Step 1: Place the starting node into the OPEN list.
o Step 2: If the OPEN list is empty, Stop and return failure.
o 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.
o Step 4: Expand the node n, and generate the successors of node n.
o 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.
o 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 lists, then add it to
the OPEN list.
o Step 7: Return to Step 2.
Advantages:
o Best first search can switch between BFS and DFS by gaining the advantages of both algorithms.
o This algorithm is more efficient than BFS and DFS algorithms.
Disadvantages:
o It can behave as an unguided depth-first search in the worst case scenario.
o It can get stuck in a loop as DFS.
o This algorithm is not optimal.
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.

In this search example, we are using two lists which are OPEN and CLOSED Lists. Following are the
iteration for traversing the above example.

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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]
AD
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
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.
AD
Optimal: Greedy best first search algorithm is not optimal.

2) A* Search Algorithm:
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 solves 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).
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.

At each point in the search space, only those node is expanded which have the lowest value of f(n)
and the algorithm terminates when the goal node is found.
Algorithm of A* Search:
Step1: Place the starting node in the OPEN list.
Step 2: Check if the OPEN list is empty or not, if the list is empty then return failure and stops.
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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
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.
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.
Step 6: Return to Step 2.
Advantages:
o A* search algorithm is the best algorithm than other search algorithms.
o A* search algorithm is optimal and complete.
o This algorithm can solve very complex problems.
Disadvantages:
o It does not always produce the shortest path as it mostly based on heuristics and approximation.
o A* search algorithm has some complexity issues.
o 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.
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.

Here we will use OPEN and CLOSED list.

Solution:

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.

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Points to remember:
o A* algorithm returns the path which occurred first, and it does not search for all remaining paths.
o The efficiency of A* algorithm depends on the quality of heuristic.
Complete: A* algorithm is complete as long as:
o Branching factor is finite.
o Cost at every action is fixed.
Optimal: A* search algorithm is optimal if it follows below two conditions:
o 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.
o Consistency: Second required condition is consistency for only A* graph-search.
If the heuristic function is admissible, then A* tree search will always find the least cost path.
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)

III. Hill Climbing Algorithm in Artificial Intelligence

o Hill climbing algorithm is a local search algorithm which continuously moves in the direction of
increasing elevation/value to find the peak of the mountain or best solution to the problem. It
terminates when it reaches a peak value where no neighbor has a higher value.
o Hill climbing algorithm is a technique which is used for optimizing the mathematical problems. One
of the widely discussed examples of Hill climbing algorithm is Traveling-salesman Problem in which
we need to minimize the distance traveled by the salesman.
o It is also called greedy local search as it only looks to its good immediate neighbor state and not
beyond that.
o A node of hill climbing algorithm has two components which are state and value.
o Hill Climbing is mostly used when a good heuristic is available.
o In this algorithm, we don't need to maintain and handle the search tree or graph as it only keeps a
single current state.
Features of Hill Climbing:
Following are some main features of Hill Climbing Algorithm:
o Generate and Test variant: Hill Climbing is the variant of Generate and Test method. The Generate
and Test method produce feedback which helps to decide which direction to move in the search
space.
o Greedy approach: Hill-climbing algorithm search moves in the direction which optimizes the cost.
o No backtracking: It does not backtrack the search space, as it does not remember the previous
states.
AD
State-space Diagram for Hill Climbing:
The state-space landscape is a graphical representation of the hill-climbing algorithm which is
showing a graph between various states of algorithm and Objective function/Cost.
On Y-axis we have taken the function which can be an objective function or cost function, and
state-space on the x-axis. If the function on Y-axis is cost then, the goal of search is to find the
global minimum and local minimum. If the function of Y-axis is Objective function, then the goal of
the search is to find the global maximum and local maximum.
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Different regions in the state space landscape:
Local Maximum: Local maximum is a state which is better than its neighbor states, but there is
also another state which is higher than it.
Global Maximum: Global maximum is the best possible state of state space landscape. It has the
highest value of objective function.
Current state: It is a state in a landscape diagram where an agent is currently present.
Flat local maximum: It is a flat space in the landscape where all the neighbor states of current
states have the same value.
Shoulder: It is a plateau region which has an uphill edge.
AD
Types of Hill Climbing Algorithm:
o Simple hill Climbing:
o Steepest-Ascent hill-climbing:
o Stochastic hill Climbing:
1. Simple Hill Climbing:
Simple hill climbing is the simplest way to implement a hill climbing algorithm. It only evaluates
the neighbor node state at a time and selects the first one which optimizes current cost and
set it as a current state. It only checks it's one successor state, and if it finds better than the
current state, then move else be in the same state. This algorithm has the following features:
o Less time consuming
o Less optimal solution and the solution is not guaranteed
Algorithm for Simple Hill Climbing:
o Step 1: Evaluate the initial state, if it is goal state then return success and Stop.
o Step 2: Loop Until a solution is found or there is no new operator left to apply.
o Step 3: Select and apply an operator to the current state.
o Step 4: Check new state:
a. If it is goal state, then return success and quit.
b. Else if it is better than the current state then assign new state as a current state.
c. Else if not better than the current state, then return to step2.
o Step 5: Exit.
2. Steepest-Ascent hill climbing:
The steepest-Ascent algorithm is a variation of simple hill climbing algorithm. This algorithm
examines all the neighboring nodes of the current state and selects one neighbor node which is
closest to the goal state. This algorithm consumes more time as it searches for multiple neighbors
Algorithm for Steepest-Ascent hill climbing:
o Step 1: Evaluate the initial state, if it is goal state then return success and stop, else make current
state as initial state.
o Step 2: Loop until a solution is found or the current state does not change.
a. Let SUCC be a state such that any successor of the current state will be better than it.
b. For each operator that applies to the current state:
a. Apply the new operator and generate a new state.
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 b. Evaluate the new state.
c. If it is goal state, then return it and quit, else compare it to the SUCC.
d. If it is better than SUCC, then set new state as SUCC.
e. If the SUCC is better than the current state, then set current state to SUCC.
o Step 5: Exit.
3. Stochastic hill climbing:
Stochastic hill climbing does not examine for all its neighbor before moving. Rather, this search
algorithm selects one neighbor node at random and decides whether to choose it as a current
state or examine another state.
Problems in Hill Climbing Algorithm:
1. Local Maximum: A local maximum is a peak state in the landscape which is better than each of
its neighboring states, but there is another state also present which is higher than the local
maximum.
Solution: Backtracking technique can be a solution of the local maximum in state space landscape.
Create a list of the promising path so that the algorithm can backtrack the search space and
explore other paths as well.

2. Plateau: A plateau is the flat area of the search space in which all the neighbor states of the
current state contains the same value, because of this algorithm does not find any best direction to
move. A hill-climbing search might be lost in the plateau area.
Solution: The solution for the plateau is to take big steps or very little steps while searching, to
solve the problem. Randomly select a state which is far away from the current state so it is possible
that the algorithm could find non-plateau region.

3. Ridges: A ridge is a special form of the local maximum. It has an area which is higher than its
surrounding areas, but itself has a slope, and cannot be reached in a single move.
Solution: With the use of bidirectional search, or by moving in different directions, we can improve
this problem.
AD

Simulated Annealing:
A hill-climbing algorithm which never makes a move towards a lower value guaranteed to be
incomplete because it can get stuck on a local maximum. And if algorithm applies a random walk,
by moving a successor, then it may complete but not efficient. Simulated Annealing is an
algorithm which yields both efficiency and completeness.

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In mechanical term Annealing is a process of hardening a metal or glass to a high temperature
then cooling gradually, so this allows the metal to reach a low-energy crystalline state. The same
process is used in simulated annealing in which the algorithm picks a random move, instead of
picking the best move. If the random move improves the state, then it follows the same path.
Otherwise, the algorithm follows the path which has a probability of less than 1 or it moves
downhill and chooses another path.
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
Difference between Human and Machine Intelligence
 Humans perceive by patterns whereas the machines perceive by set of rules and data.
 Humans store and recall information by patterns, machines do it by searching algorithms. For example, the
number 40404040 is easy to remember, store and recall as its pattern is simple.
 Humans can figure out the complete object even if some part of it is missing or distorted; whereas the
machines cannot correctly.

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