UNIT 2

Solving Problems by Searching:

Problem-solving agents:

• In Artificial Intelligence, Search 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. In this
topic, we will learn various problem-solving search algorithms.
• Goals help organize behavior by limiting the objectives that the agent is trying to achieve
and hence the action it needs to consider.
• Goal formulation based on the current situation and the agent’s performance measure is
the first step in problem solving.

Problem formulation: is the process of deciding what actions and states to consider,
given a goal.

Assuming:
Well defined problems and solutions
Search: Searching is a step-by-step procedure to solve a search-problem in a given search space. A search
problem can have five main factors:

1. Start State or initial state: It is a state from where agent begins the search. For example the initial
state for our agent in Romania might be described as In(Arad)

2. Actions: It gives the description of all the available actions to the agent. Example: the applicable
actions are {Go(Sibiu), Go(Timisoara), Go(Zerind)}
3. Transition model: A description of what each action do, can be represented as a transition model.
Here, successor refer to any state reachable from a given state by a single action. Example:

RESULT(In(Arad), Go( Zerind))=In(Zerind).

 The state space represents a directed graph in which the nodes are states
and the links between nodes are actions. A path in the state space is a sequence
of states connected by a sequence of actions.

4. Goal test: It is a function which observe the current state and returns whether the goal state is
achieved or not. The agent’s goal in Romania is the singleton set {In (Bucharest)}
5. Path cost: It is a function which assigns a numeric cost to each path. For the agent trying to get
to Bucharest, time is of the essence, so the cost of the path might be its length in kms.
6. Solution: It is an action sequence which leads from the start node to the goal node.
7. Optimal Solution: If a solution has the lowest cost among all solutions.

Properties of Search Algorithms:

Following are the four essential properties of search algorithms to compare the efficiency of
these algorithms:

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: 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.

A simple problem-solving agent. It first formulates a goal and a problem, searches for a sequence
of actions that would solve the problem and then executes the actions one at a time. When this is
complete, it formulates another goal and starts over.
Example Problems

1. and real world problem

Example-2 8 puzzle problem

States: A state description specifies the location of each of the eight tiles and the blank in one of the nine
squares.
• Initial state: Any state can be designated as the initial state. Note that any given goal can be reached
from exactly half of the possible initial states.
• Actions: The simplest formulation defines the actions as movements of the blank space Left, Right, Up,
or Down. Different subsets of these are possible depending on where the blank is.
• Transition model: Given a state and action, this returns the resulting state; for example, if we apply
Left to the start state in Figure 3.4, the resulting state has the 5 and the blank switched.
• Goal test: This checks whether the state matches the goal configuration shown in Figure 4. (Other goal
configurations are possible.)

• Path cost: Each step costs 1, so the path cost is the number of steps in the path.

Types of search algorithms

Based on the search problems we can classify the search algorithms into uninformed (Blind
search) search and informed search (Heuristic search) algorithms.
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 the goal, so it is also called blind search.
• It examines each node of the tree until it achieves the goal node.

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 problems which could not be solved in another
way.

An example of informed search algorithms is a traveling salesman problem.

1. Greedy Search
2. A* Search

3.SEARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS

Figure 3.6 shows the first few steps in growing the search tree for finding a route from Arad to Bucharest
The set of all leaf nodes available for expansion at any given point is called the frontier.
Explored set remembers every expanded node. Newly generated nodes that match previously
generated nodes-ones in the explored set or the frontier can be discarded instead of being added to
the frontier.

3.1 Infrastructure for search algorithms

we have a structure that contains four components:
• n.STATE: the state in the state space to which the node corresponds;
• n.PARENT: the node in the search tree that generated this node;
• n.ACTION: the action that was applied to the parent to generate the node;
• n.PATH-COST: the cost, traditionally denoted by g(n), of the path from the initial state to the
node, as indicated by the parent pointers
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.

8. Breadth-first Search:
Expand shallowest unexpanded node

● Breadth-first search is the most common search strategy for traversing a tree or graph. This
algorithm searches breadth wise in a tree or graph, so it is called breadth-first search.
● BFS algorithm starts searching from the root node of the tree and expands all successor node at
the current level before moving to nodes of next level.
● The breadth-first search algorithm is an example of a general-graph search algorithm.
● Breadth-first search implemented using FIFO queue data structure.

Advantages:

● BFS will provide a solution if any solution exists.

● If there are more than one solutions for a given problem, then BFS will provide the
minimal solution which requires the least number of steps.

Disadvantages:

● It requires lots of memory since each level of the tree must be saved into memory to
expand the next level.
● 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:

1. 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 the d= depth of 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.

fringe is a FIFO queue, i.e., new successors go at end

2. Depth-first Search
• Depth-first search is a recursive algorithm for traversing a tree or graph data structure.
• 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.
• DFS uses a stack data structure for its implementation.
• The process of the DFS algorithm is similar to the BFS algorithm.

OR
• DFS always expands the deepest node in the current frontier of the search tree.
• It uses a stack (LIFO queue, last in first out)
• DFS is frequently programmed recursively, and then the program call stack is the LIFO
queue.
• DFS is complete, if the graph is finite.
• The tree search version of DFS is complete on a finite tree, if a test is included whether
the node has already been visited
• DFS is incomplete on infinite trees or graphs.
Advantage:

● 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.
● It takes less time to reach to the goal node than BFS algorithm (if it traverses in the right
path).

Disadvantage:

● There is the possibility that many states keep re-occurring, and there is no guarantee of
finding the solution.
● DFS algorithm goes for deep down searching and sometime it may go to the infinite loop.

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.

Difference between BFS and DFS with example:

Breadth First Search

BFS stands for Breadth First Search is a vertex-based technique for finding a shortest path in
graph. It uses a Queue data structure which follows first in first out. In BFS, one vertex is
selected at a time when it is visited and marked then its adjacent are visited and stored in the
queue. It is slower than DFS.
Ex-

A
/ \
B C
/ / \
D E F

Output is:

A, B, C, D, E, F

Depth First Search

DFS stands for Depth First Search is an edge-based technique. It uses the
Stack data structure, performs two stages, first visited vertices are pushed
into stack and second if there is no vertices then visited vertices are
popped.
Ex- A
/ \
B C
/ / \
D E F

Output is:

A, B, D, C, E, F
BFS vs DFS

S.NO BFS DFS

1. BFS stands for Breadth First Search. DFS stands for Depth First Search.
BFS (Breadth First Search) uses Queue data DFS (Depth First Search) uses Stack data
2.
structure for finding the shortest path. structure.
BFS can be used to find single source
shortest path in an unweighted graph, In DFS, we might traverse through more
3. because in BFS, we reach a vertex with edges to reach a destination vertex from a
minimum number of edges from a source source.
vertex.
BFS is more suitable for searching vertices DFS is more suitable when there are
4.
which are closer to the given source. solutions away from source.
DFS is more suitable for game or puzzle
BFS considers all neighbors first and
problems. We make a decision, then explore
5. therefore not suitable for decision making
all paths through this decision. And if this
trees used in games or puzzles.
decision leads to win situation, we stop.
The Time complexity of BFS is O(V + E), The Time complexity of DFS is also O(V +
6. where V stands for vertices and E stands for E), where V stands for vertices and E stands
edges. for edges.

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 if it has no successor nodes further.

Depth-limited search can be terminated with two Conditions of failure:

● Standard failure value: It indicates that problem does not have any solution.
● Cutoff failure value: It defines no solution for the problem within a given depth limit.

Advantages:

Depth-limited search is Memory efficient.

Disadvantages:

● Depth-limited search also has a disadvantage of incompleteness.

● It may not be optimal if the problem has more than one solution.
Example:

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. 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 a 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.
• This Search algorithm combines the benefits of the Breadth-first search's fast search and
depth-first search's memory efficiency.

The iterative search algorithm is a useful uninformed search when search space is large,
and depth of goal node is unknown.

Advantages:

● It combines the benefits of BFS and DFS search algorithms 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.
Over ALL the iterations from depth bound 0 to 3, the order in which nodes removed from the
frontier is

Iteration 0: A
Iteration 1: A B C
Iteration 2: A B D E C F G
Iteration 3: A B D H I E J K C F L M G N O
5. 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:

● 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.
Informed search algorithm
• Informed search algorithm uses the idea of heuristic, so it is also called Heuristic search.

• 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.

• The heuristic method, however, might not always give the best solution, but it guaranteed
to find a good solution in reasonable time.

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 given below:

● Best First Search Algorithm (Greedy search)

● A* Search Algorithm

Best-first Search Algorithm (Greedy 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)= h(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:
● Step 1: Place the starting node into the OPEN list.
● Step 2: If the OPEN list is empty, Stop and return failure.
● 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.
● Step 4: Expand the node n, and generate the successors of node n.
● 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.
● 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.
● Step 7: Return to Step 2.

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.
● 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.
• 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.
Text Book example:
1. 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 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).
• Thus, UCS uses g(n), Best First Search (Greedy) uses h(n) whereas A* search uses
g(n) + h(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 that 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.

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:

● 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.

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.
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.

Points to remember:

● A* algorithm returns the path which occurred first, and it does not search for all
remaining paths.
● The efficiency of A* algorithm depends on the quality of heuristic.
● A* algorithm expands all nodes which satisfy the condition f(n) <="" li="">

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.

• An admissible heuristic never overestimates the cost to reach the goal, i.e., it is optimistic

● 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)

Relaxed problems:

• A problem with fewer restrictions on the actions is called a relaxed problem

• The cost of an optimal solution to a relaxed problem is an admissible heuristic for the
original problem
• If the rules of the 8-puzzle are relaxed so that a tile can move anywhere, then h1(n) gives
the shortest solution
• If the rules are relaxed so that a tile can move to any adjacent square, then h2(n) gives the
shortest solution

Difference between Informed search and Uninformed search

Basis of Informed search Uninformed search
comparison
Basic Uses knowledge to find the No use of knowledge
knowledge steps to the solution.
Efficiency Highly efficient as consumes Efficiency is mediatory
less time and cost.
Cost Low Comparatively high
Performance Finds the solution more Speed is slower than the informed
quickly. search.
Algorithms Heuristic depth-first and Depth-first search, breadth-first
breadth-first search, and A* search, and lowest cost first
search search

Hill Climbing Algorithm in Artificial Intelligence

● 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.
● 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.
● It is also called greedy local search as it only looks to its good immediate neighbor state and not
beyond that.
● A node of hill climbing algorithm has two components which are state and value.
● Hill Climbing is mostly used when a good heuristic is available.
● 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:

● 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.
● Greedy approach: Hill-climbing algorithm search moves in the direction which optimizes the
cost.
● No backtracking: It does not backtrack the search space, as it does not remember the previous
states.
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.

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.

Types of Hill Climbing Algorithm:

● Simple hill Climbing:

● Steepest-Ascent hill-climbing:
● 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:

● Less time consuming

● Less optimal solution and the solution is not guaranteed

Algorithm for Simple Hill Climbing:

● Step 1: Evaluate the initial state, if it is goal state then return success and Stop.
● Step 2: Loop Until a solution is found or there is no new operator left to apply.
● Step 3: Select and apply an operator to the current state.
● Step 4: Check new state:
1. If it is goal state, then return success and quit.
2. Else if it is better than the current state then assign new state as a current state.
3. Else if not better than the current state, then return to step2.
● 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:

● Step 1: Evaluate the initial state, if it is goal state then return success and stop, else make
current state as initial state.
● Step 2: Loop until a solution is found or the current state does not change.
1. Let SUCC be a state such that any successor of the current state will be better than it.
2. For each operator that applies to the current state:
I.Apply the new operator and generate a new state.
II.Evaluate the new state.
III.If it is goal state, then return it and quit, else compare it to the SUCC.
IV.If it is better than SUCC, then set new state as SUCC.
V.If the SUCC is better than the current state, then set current state to SUCC.
● 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.

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.
• Simulated Annealing is a stochastic global search optimization algorithm.
• This means that it makes use of randomness as part of the search process. This makes the
algorithm appropriate for nonlinear objective functions where other local search algorithms
do not operate well.
• 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.
• Like the stochastic hill climbing local search algorithm, it modifies a single solution and
searches the relatively local area of the search space until the local optima is located. Unlike
the hill climbing algorithm, it may accept worse solutions as the current working solution.