CSE411

Artificial Intelligence
Search
 Search
• Search permeates all of AI
• 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
• An intelligent agent is trying to find a set or sequence of actions to
achieve a goal
• This is a goal-based agent
Problem-solving Agent

SimpleProblemSolvingAgent(percept)
state = UpdateState(state, percept)
if sequence is empty then
goal = FormulateGoal(state)
problem = FormulateProblem(state, g)
sequence = Search(problem)
action = First(sequence)
sequence = Rest(sequence)
Return action
 Assumptions
• Static or dynamic?

Environment is static
 Assumptions
• Static or dynamic?
• Fully or partially observable?

Environment is fully observable

 Assumptions
• Static or dynamic?
• Fully or partially observable?
• Discrete or continuous?

Environment is discrete
 Assumptions
• Static or dynamic?
• Fully or partially observable?
• Discrete or continuous?
• Deterministic or stochastic?

Environment is deterministic
 Assumptions
• Static or dynamic?
• Fully or partially observable?
• Discrete or continuous?
• Deterministic or stochastic?
• Episodic or sequential?
Environment is sequential
 Assumptions
• Static or dynamic?
• Fully or partially observable?
• Discrete or continuous?
• Deterministic or stochastic?
• Episodic or sequential?
• Single agent or multiple agent?
 Assumptions
• Static or dynamic?
• Fully or partially observable?
• Discrete or continuous?
• Deterministic or stochastic?
• Episodic or sequential?
• Single agent or multiple agent?
Search Example
Formulate goal: Be in
Bucharest.

Formulate problem: states

are cities, operators drive
between pairs of cities

Find solution: Find a

sequence of cities (e.g., Arad,
Sibiu, Fagaras, Bucharest) that
leads from the current state
to a state meeting the goal
condition
 Search Space Definitions
• State
– A description of a possible state of the world
– Includes all features of the world that are pertinent to the problem
• Initial state
– Description of all pertinent aspects of the state in which the agent starts
the search
• Goal test
– Conditions the agent is trying to meet (e.g., have $1M)
• Goal state
– Any state which meets the goal condition
– Thursday, have $1M, live in NYC
– Friday, have $1M, live in Valparaiso
• Action
– Function that maps (transitions) from one state to another
 Search Space Definitions
• Problem formulation
– Describe a general problem as a search problem
• Solution
– Sequence of actions that transitions the world from the initial state to a
goal state
• Solution cost (additive)
– Sum of the cost of operators
– Alternative: sum of distances, number of steps, etc.
• Search
– Process of looking for a solution
– Search algorithm takes problem as input and returns solution
– We are searching through a space of possible states
• Execution
– Process of executing sequence of actions (solution)
 Problem Formulation

A search problem is defined by the

1. Initial state (e.g., Arad)

2. Operators (e.g., Arad -> Zerind, Arad -> Sibiu, etc.)
3. Goal test (e.g., at Bucharest)
4. Solution cost (e.g., path cost)
Example Problems – Eight Puzzle
States: tile locations

Initial state: one specific tile configuration

Operators: move blank tile left, right, up, or

down

Goal: tiles are numbered from one to eight

around the square

Path cost: cost of 1 per move (solution cost

same as number of most or path length)

Eight puzzle applet

Example Problems – Robot Assembly
States: real-valued coordinates of
• robot joint angles
• parts of the object to be assembled

Operators: rotation of joint angles

Goal test: complete assembly

Path cost: time to complete assembly

Example Problems – Towers of Hanoi
States: combinations of poles and disks

Operators: move disk x from pole y to pole z

subject to constraints
• cannot move disk on top of smaller disk
• cannot move disk if other disks on top

Goal test: disks from largest (at bottom) to

smallest on goal pole

Path cost: 1 per move

Towers of Hanoi applet

Example Problems – Rubik’s Cube
States: list of colors for each cell on each face

Initial state: one specific cube configuration

Operators: rotate row x or column y on face

z direction a

Goal: configuration has only one color on

each face

Path cost: 1 per move

Rubik’s cube applet

Example Problems – Eight Queens
States: locations of 8 queens on chess board

Initial state: one specific queens

configuration

Operators: move queen x to row y and

column z

Goal: no queen can attack another (cannot

be in same row, column, or diagonal)

Path cost: 1 per move

Eight queens applet

Example Problems –
Missionaries and Cannibals
States: number of missionaries, cannibals,
and boat on near river bank

Initial state: all objects on near river bank

Operators: move boat with x missionaries

and y cannibals to other side of river
• no more cannibals than missionaries on
either river bank or in boat
• boat holds at most m occupants

Goal: all objects on far river bank

Path cost: 1 per river crossing

Missionaries and cannibals applet

Example Problems –Water Jug
States: Contents of 4-gallon jug and 3-gallon
jug

Initial state: (0,0)

Operators:
• fill jug x from faucet
• pour contents of jug x in jug y until y full
• dump contents of jug x down drain

Goal: (2,n)

Path cost: 1 per fill

Saving the world, Part I

Saving the world, Part II

Sample Search Problems
• Graph coloring
• Protein folding
• Game playing
• Airline travel
• Proving algebraic equalities
• Robot motion planning
 Visualize Search Space as a Tree
• States are nodes
• Actions are edges
• Initial state is root
• Solution is path
from root to goal
node
• Edges sometimes
have associated
costs
• States resulting
from operator are
children
Search Problem Example (as a tree)
 Search Function –
Uninformed Searches
Open = initial state // open list is all generated states
// that have not been “expanded”
While open not empty // one iteration of search algorithm
state = First(open) // current state is first state in open
Pop(open) // remove new current state from open
if Goal(state) // test current state for goal condition
return “succeed” // search is complete
// else expand the current state by
// generating children and
// reorder open list per search strategy
else open = QueueFunction(open, Expand(state))
Return “fail”
 Search Strategies
• Search strategies differ only in
QueuingFunction
• Features by which to compare search
strategies
– Completeness (always find solution)
– Cost of search (time and space)
– Cost of solution, optimal solution
– Make use of knowledge of the domain
• “uninformed search” vs. “informed search”
 Breadth-First Search
• Generate children of a state, QueueingFn
adds the children to the end of the open list
• Level-by-level search
• Order in which children are inserted on
open list is arbitrary
• In tree, assume children are considered left-
to-right unless specified differently
• Number of children is “branching factor” b
 Algorithm: Breadth First Search
a. Create a variable called NODE-LIST and set it to the initial
state.
b. Loop until the goal state is found or NODE-LIST is empty.
i. Remove the first element, say E, from the NODE-
LIST. If NODE-LIST was empty then quit.
ii. For each way that each rule can match the state
described in E do:
c. i) Apply the rule to generate a new state.
ii) If the new state is the goal state, quit and return this
state.
iii) Otherwise add this state to the end of NODE-LIST
Advantages of Breadth-First Search
Breadth first search will never get trapped exploring the useless path
forever.
If there is a solution, BFS will definitely find it out.
If there is more than one solution then BFS can find the minimal one
that requires less number of steps.
Disadvantages of Breadth-First Search 
The main drawback of Breadth first search is its memory
requirement. Since each level of the tree must be saved in order to
generate the next level, and the amount of memory is proportional to
the number of nodes stored, the space complexity of BFS is O(bd). As
a result, BFS is severely space-bound in practice so will exhaust the
memory available on typical computers in a matter of minutes.
If the solution is farther away from the root, breath first search will
consume lot of time.
BFS Examples

b=2

Example trees

Search algorithms applet

 Analysis
• Assume goal node at level d with constant branching factor b

• Time complexity (measured in #nodes generated)

1 (1st level ) + b (2nd level) + b2 (3rd level) + … + bd (goal level) + (bd+1 – b) = O(bd+1)

• This assumes goal on far right of level

• Space complexity
At most majority of nodes at level d + majority of nodes at level d+1 = O(bd+1)
Exponential time and space

• Features
Simple to implement
Complete
Finds shortest solution (not necessarily least-cost unless all operators have equal cost)
 Analysis
• See what happens with b=10
– expand 10,000 nodes/second
– 1,000 bytes/node
Depth Nodes Time Memory
2 1110 .11 seconds 1 megabyte
4 111,100 11 seconds 106 megabytes
6 107 19 minutes 10 gigabytes
8 109 31 hours 1 terabyte
10 1011 129 days 101 terabytes
12 1013 35 years 10 petabytes
15 1015 3,523 years 1 exabyte
 Depth-First Search
• QueueingFn adds the children to the
front of the open list
• BFS emulates FIFO queue
• DFS emulates LIFO stack
• Net effect
– Follow leftmost path to bottom, then
backtrack
– Expand deepest node first
 Algorithm: Depth First Search
1.If the initial state is a goal state, quit and return
success.
2.Otherwise, loop until success or failure is signaled.
a) Generate a state, say E, and let it be the successor
of the initial state. If there is no successor, signal
failure.
b) Call Depth-First Search with E as the initial state.
c) If success is returned, signal success. Otherwise
continue in this loop.
DFS Examples
Example trees
 Analysis
• Time complexity
In the worst case, search entire space
Goal may be at level d but tree may continue to level m, m>=d
O(bm)
Particularly bad if tree is infinitely deep

• Space complexity
Only need to save one set of children at each level
1 + b + b + … + b (m levels total) = O(bm)
For previous example, DFS requires 118kb instead of 10 petabytes for d=12 (10 billion times less)

• Benefits
May not always find solution
Solution is not necessarily shortest or least cost
If many solutions, may find one quickly (quickly moves to depth d)
Simple to implement
Space often bigger constraint, so more usable than BFS for large problems
• Advantages of Depth-First Search
•  
• The advantage of depth-first Search is that memory requirement is
only linear with respect to the search graph. This is in contrast with
breadth-first search which requires more space. The reason is that
the algorithm only needs to store a stack of nodes on the path from
the root to the current node. 
•  
• The time complexity of a depth-first Search to depth d is O(b^d)
since it generates the same set of nodes as breadth-first search, but
simply in a different order. Thus practically depth-first search is
time-limited rather than space-limited. 
•  
• If depth-first search finds solution without exploring much in a path
then the time and space it takes will be very less.
• Disadvantages of Depth-First Search
•  
• The disadvantage of Depth-First Search is that there is a possibility that it
may go down the left-most path forever. Even a finite graph can generate
an infinite tree. One solution to this problem is to impose a cutoff depth
on the search. Although the ideal cutoff is the solution depth d and this
value is rarely known in advance of actually solving the problem. If the
chosen cutoff depth is less than d, the algorithm will fail to find a solution,
whereas if the cutoff depth is greater than d, a large price is paid in
execution time, and the first solution found may not be an optimal one.

• Depth-First Search is not guaranteed to find the solution.

 
• And there is no guarantee to find a minimal solution, if more than one
solution exists.
Comparison of Search Techniques

DFS BFS
Complete N Y
Optimal N N
Heuristic N N
Time bm bd+1
Space bm bd+1
 Avoiding Repeated States
Can we do it?

• Do not return to parent or grandparent state

– In 8 puzzle, do not move up right after down
• Do not create solution paths with cycles
• Do not generate repeated states (need to store
and check potentially large number of states)
 Maze Example
• States are cells in a maze
• Move N, E, S, or W
• What would BFS do
(expand E, then N, W, S)?
• What would DFS do?
• What if order changed to
N, E, S, W and loops are
prevented?
Uniform Cost Search (Branch&Bound)

• QueueingFn is SortByCostSoFar
• Cost from root to current node n is g(n)
– Add operator costs along path
• First goal found is least-cost solution
• Space & time can be exponential because large
subtrees with inexpensive steps may be explored
before useful paths with costly steps
• If costs are equal, time and space are O(bd)
– Otherwise, complexity related to cost of optimal
solution
 UCS Example

Open list: C
 UCS Example

Open list: B(2) T(1) O(3) E(2) P(5)

 UCS Example

Open list: T(1) B(2) E(2) O(3) P(5)

 UCS Example

Open list: B(2) E(2) O(3) P(5)

 UCS Example

Open list: E(2) O(3) P(5)

 UCS Example

Open list: E(2) O(3) A(3) S(5) P(5) R(6)

 UCS Example

Open list: O(3) A(3) S(5) P(5) R(6)

 UCS Example

Open list: O(3) A(3) S(5) P(5) R(6) G(10)

 UCS Example

Open list: A(3) S(5) P(5) R(6) G(10)

 UCS Example

Open list: A(3) I(4) S(5) N(5) P(5) R(6) G(10)

 UCS Example

Open list: I(4) P(5) S(5) N(5) R(6) G(10)

 UCS Example

Open list: P(5) S(5) N(5) R(6) Z(6) G(10)

 UCS Example

Open list: S(5) N(5) R(6) Z(6) F(6) D(8) G(10) L(10)
 UCS Example

Open list: N(5) R(6) Z(6) F(6) D(8) G(10) L(10)

 UCS Example

Open list: Z(6) F(6) D(8) G(10) L(10)

 UCS Example

Open list: F(6) D(8) G(10) L(10)

UCS Example
Comparison of Search Techniques
DFS BFS UCS
Complete N Y Y
Optimal N N Y
Heuristic N N N
Time bm bd+1 bm
Space bm bd+1 bm
 Iterative Deepening Search
• DFS with depth bound
• QueuingFn is enqueue at front as with
DFS
– Expand(state) only returns children such that
depth(child) <= threshold
– This prevents search from going down
infinite path
• First threshold is 1
– If do not find solution, increment threshold
and repeat
Examples
 Analysis
• What about the repeated work?
• Time complexity (number of generated nodes)
[b] + [b + b2] + .. + [b + b2 + .. + bd]
(d)b + (d-1) b2 + … + (1) bd
O(bd)
 Analysis
• Repeated work is approximately 1/b of total
work
Negligible
Example: b=10, d=5
N(BFS) = 1,111,100
N(IDS) = 123,450
• Features
– Shortest solution, not necessarily least cost
– Is there a better way to decide threshold? (IDA*)
Comparison of Search Techniques
DFS BFS UCS IDS
Complete N Y Y Y
Optimal N N Y N
Heuristic N N N N
Time bm bd+1 bm bd
Space bm bd+1 bm bd
 Bidirectional Search
• Search forward from
initial state to goal AND
backward from goal state
to initial state
• Can prune many options
• Considerations
– Which goal state(s) to use
– How determine when
searches overlap
– Which search to use for
each direction
– Here, two BFS searches
• Time and space is O(bd/2)
 Informed Searches
• Best-first search, Hill climbing, Beam search, A*, IDA*, RBFS, SMA*
• New terms
– Heuristics
– Optimal solution
– Informedness
– Hill climbing problems
– Admissibility
• New parameters
– g(n) = estimated cost from initial state to state n
– h(n) = estimated cost (distance) from state n to closest goal
– h(n) is our heuristic
• Robot path planning, h(n) could be Euclidean distance
• 8 puzzle, h(n) could be #tiles out of place
• Search algorithms which use h(n) to guide search are heuristic
search algorithms
 Best-First Search
• QueueingFn is sort-by-h
• Best-first search only as good as heuristic
– Example heuristic for 8 puzzle:
Manhattan Distance
Example
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Comparison of Search Techniques
DFS BFS UCS IDS Best
Complete N Y Y Y N
Optimal N N Y N N
Heuristic N N N N Y
Time bm bd+1 bm bd bm
Space bm bd+1 bm bd bm
Hill Climbing (Greedy Search)
• QueueingFn is sort-by-h
– Only keep lowest-h state on open list
• Best-first search is tentative
• Hill climbing is irrevocable
• Features
– Much faster
– Less memory
– Dependent upon h(n)
– If bad h(n), may prune away all goals
– Not complete
Example
Example
 Hill Climbing Issues
• Also referred to as gradient descent
• Foothill problem / local maxima / local minima
• Can be solved with random walk or more steps
• Other problems: ridges, plateaus

global maxima
values

local maxima

states
Comparison of Search Techniques
DFS BFS UCS IDS Best HC
Complete N Y Y Y N N
Optimal N N Y N N N
Heuristic N N N N Y Y
Time bm bd+1 bm bd bm mn
Space bm bd+1 bm bd bm b
 Beam Search
• QueueingFn is sort-by-h
– Only keep best (lowest-h) n nodes on open list
• n is the “beam width”
– n = 1, Hill climbing
– n = infinity, Best first search
Example
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Comparison of Search Techniques
DFS BFS UCS IDS Best HC Beam
Complete N Y Y Y N N N
Optimal N N Y N N N N
Heuristic N N N N Y Y Y
Time bm bd+1 bm bd bm bm nm
Space bm bd+1 bm bd bm b bn
 A*
• QueueingFn is sort-by-f
– f(n) = g(n) + h(n)
• Note that UCS and Best-first both improve
search
– UCS keeps solution cost low
– Best-first helps find solution quickly
• A* combines these approaches
 Power of f
• If heuristic function is wrong it either
– overestimates (guesses too high)
– underestimates (guesses too low)
• Overestimating is worse than underestimating
• A* returns optimal solution if h(n) is admissible
– heuristic function is admissible if never
overestimates true cost to nearest goal
– if search finds optimal solution using admissible
heuristic, the search is admissible
 Overestimating
A (15)
3 3
2

B (6) C (20) D (10)

15 6 20 10 5

E (20) F(0) G (12) H (20) I(0)

• Solution cost: • Open list:

– ABF = 9 – A (15) B (9) F (9)
– ADI = 8 • Missed optimal solution
 Example

A* applied to 8 puzzle

A* search applet
Example
Example
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Example
 Optimality of A*
• Suppose a suboptimal goal G2 is on the open list
• Let n be unexpanded node on smallest-cost path to
optimal goal G1

f(G2) = g(G2) since h(G2) = 0

>= g(G1) since G2 is suboptimal
>= f(n) since h is admissible

Since f(G2) > f(n), A* will never select G2 for expansion

Comparison of Search Techniques
DFS BFS UCS IDS Best HC Beam A*
Complete N Y Y Y N N N Y
Optimal N N Y N N N N Y
Heuristic N N N N Y Y Y Y
Time bm bd+1 bm bd bm bm nm bm
Space bm bd+1 bm bd bm b bn bm
 IDA*
• Series of Depth-First Searches
• Like Iterative Deepening Search, except
– Use A* cost threshold instead of depth threshold
– Ensures optimal solution
• QueuingFn enqueues at front if f(child) <= threshold
• Threshold
– h(root) first iteration
– Subsequent iterations
• f(min_child)
• min_child is the cut off child with the minimum f value
– Increase always includes at least one new node
– Makes sure search never looks beyond optimal cost solution
Example
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 Analysis
• Some redundant search
– Small amount compared to work done on last
iteration
• Dangerous if continuous-valued h(n) values or if
values very close
– If threshold = 21.1 and value is 21.2, probably only
include 1 new node each iteration
• Time complexity is O(bm)
• Space complexity is O(m)
Comparison of Search Techniques
DFS BFS UCS IDS Best HC Beam A* IDA*
Complete N Y Y Y N N N Y Y
Optimal N N Y N N N N Y Y
Heuristic N N N N Y Y Y Y Y
Time bm bd+1 bm bd bm bm nm bm bm
Space bm bd+1 bm bd bm b bn bm bm
 RBFS
• Recursive Best First Search
– Linear space variant of A*
• Perform A* search but discard subtrees when
perform recursion
• Keep track of alternative (next best) subtree
• Expand subtree until f value greater than bound
• Update f values before (from parent)
and after (from descendant) recursive call
 Algorithm
// Input is current node and f limit
// Returns goal node or failure, updated limit
RBFS(n, limit)
if Goal(n)
return n
children = Expand(n)
if children empty
return failure, infinity
for each c in children
f[c] = max(g(c)+h(c), f[n]) // Update f[c] based on parent
repeat
best = child with smallest f value
if f[best] > limit
return failure, f[best]
alternative = second-lowest f-value among children
newlimit = min(limit, alternative)
result, f[best] = RBFS(best, newlimit) // Update f[best] based on descendant
if result not equal to failure
return result
Example
Example
Example
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Example
 Analysis
• Optimal if h(n) is admissible
• Space is O(bm)
• Features
– Potentially exponential time in cost of solution
– More efficient than IDA*
– Keeps more information than IDA* but benefits
from storing this information
 SMA*
• Simplified Memory-Bounded A* Search
• Perform A* search
• When memory is full
– Discard worst leaf (largest f(n) value)
– Back value of discarded node to parent
• Optimal if solution fits in memory
 Example
• Let MaxNodes = 3
• Initially B&G added to open list,
then hit max
• B is larger f value so discard but
save f(B)=15 at parent A
– Add H but f(H)=18. Not a goal and
cannot go deper, so set
f(h)=infinity and save at G.
• Generate next child I with
f(I)=24, bigger child of A. We
have seen all children of G, so
reset f(G)=24.
• Regenerate B and child C. This is
not goal so f(c) reset to infinity
• Generate second child D with
f(D)=24, backing up value to
ancestors
• D is a goal node, so search
terminates.
 Heuristic Functions
• Q: Given that we will only use heuristic
functions that do not overestimate, what type
of heuristic functions (among these) perform
best?
• A: Those that produce higher h(n) values.
 Reasons
• Higher h value means closer to actual distance
• Any node n on open list with
– f(n) < f*(goal)
– will be selected for expansion by A*
• This means if a lot of nodes have a low
underestimate (lower than actual optimum cost)
– All of them will be expanded
– Results in increased search time and space
 Informedness
• If h1 and h2 are both admissible and
• For all x, h1(x) > h2(x), then h1 “dominates” h2
– Can also say h1 is “more informed” than h2
• Example
– h1(x): | xgoal  x |
– h2(x): Euclidean distance ( x goal  x ) 2  ( y goal  y ) 2
– h2 dominates h1
 Effect on Search Cost
• If h2(n) >= h1(n) for all n (both are admissible)
– then h2 dominates h1 and is better for search
• Typical search costs
– d=14, IDS expands 3,473,941 nodes
• A* with h1 expands 539 nodes
• A* with h2 expands 113 nodes
– d=24, IDS expands ~54,000,000,000 nodes
• A* with h1 expands 39,135 nodes
• A* with h2 expands 1,641 nodes
Which of these heuristics are admissible?
Which are more informed?

• h1(n) = #tiles in wrong position

• h2(n) = Sum of Manhattan distance between each tile and goal location for the tile
• h3(n) = 0
• h4(n) = 1
• h5(n) = min(2, h*[n])
• h6(n) = Manhattan distance for blank tile
• h7(n) = max(2, h*[n])
 Generating Heuristic Functions
• Generate heuristic for simpler (relaxed)
problem
– Relaxed problem has fewer restrictions
– Eight puzzle where multiple tiles can be in the
same spot
– Cost of optimal solution to relaxed problem is an
admissible heuristic for the original problem
• Learn heuristic from experience
Iterative Improvement Algorithms
• Hill climbing
• Simulated annealing
• Genetic algorithms
 Iterative Improvement Algorithms
• For many optimization problems, solution
path is irrelevant
– Just want to reach goal state
• State space / search space
– Set of “complete” configurations
– Want to find optimal configuration (or at
least one that satisfies goal constraints)
• For these cases, use iterative improvement algorithm
– Keep a single current state
– Try to improve it
• Constant memory
 Example
• Traveling salesman

• Start with any complete tour

• Operator: Perform pairwise exchanges
 Example
• N-queens

• Put n queens on an n × n board with no two

queens on the same row, column, or diagonal
• Operator: Move queen to reduce #conflicts
Hill Climbing (gradient ascent/descent)

• “Like climbing Mount Everest in thick fog with

amnesia”
 Local Beam Search
• Keep k states instead of 1
• Choose top k of all successors
• Problem
– Many times all k states end up on same local hill
– Choose k successors RANDOMLY
– Bias toward good ones
• Similar to natural selection
 Simulated Annealing
• Pure hill climbing is not complete, but pure random search is
inefficient.
• Simulated annealing offers a compromise.
• Inspired by annealing process of gradually cooling a liquid until
it changes to a low-energy state.
• Very similar to hill climbing, except include a user-defined
temperature schedule.
• When temperature is “high”, allow some random moves.
• When temperature “cools”, reduce probability of random move.
• If T is decreased slowly enough, guaranteed to reach best state.
 Algorithm
function SimulatedAnnealing(problem, schedule) // returns solution state
current = MakeNode(Initial-State(problem))
for t = 1 to infinity
T = schedule[t]
if T = 0
return current
next = randomly-selected child of current
E = Value[next] - Value[current]
if E > 0
current = next // if better than accept state
 E
else current = next with probability e T

Simulated annealing applet

Traveling salesman simulated annealing applet

 Genetic Algorithms
• What is a Genetic Algorithm (GA)?
– An adaptation procedure based on the mechanics of
natural genetics and natural selection
• Gas have 2 essential components
– Survival of the fittest
– Recombination
• Representation
– Chromosome = string
– Gene = single bit or single subsequence in string,
represents 1 attribute
 Humans
• DNA made up of 4 nucleic acids (4-bit code)
• 46 chromosomes in humans, each contain 3 billion DNA
• 43 billion combinations of bits
• Can random search find humans?
– Assume only 0.1% genome must be discovered, 3(106) nucleotides
– Assume very short generation, 1 generation/second
– 3.2(10107) individuals per year, but 101.8(107) alternatives
– 1018106 years to generate human randomly
• Self reproduction, self repair, adaptability are the rule in natural
systems, they hardly exist in the artificial world
• Finding and adopting nature’s approach to computational design
should unlock many doors in science and engineering
 GAs Exhibit Search
• Each attempt a GA makes towards a solution is called a
chromosome
– A sequence of information that can be interpreted as a possible
solution
• Typically, a chromosome is represented as sequence of
binary digits
– Each digit is a gene
• A GA maintains a collection or population of
chromosomes
– Each chromosome in the population represents a different
guess at the solution
 The GA Procedure
1. Initialize a population (of solution guesses)
2. Do (once for each generation)
a. Evaluate each chromosome in the population
using a fitness function
b. Apply GA operators to population to create a new
population
3. Finish when solution is reached or number of
generations has reached an allowable
maximum.
 Common Operators
• Reproduction
• Crossover
• Mutation
 Reproduction
• Select individuals x according to their fitness
values f(x)
– Like beam search
• Fittest individuals survive (and possibly mate)
for next generation
 Crossover
• Select two parents
• Select cross site
• Cut and splice pieces of one parent to those of
the other

11111 11000
00000 00111
 Mutation
• With small probability, randomly alter 1 bit
• Minor operator
• An insurance policy against lost bits
• Pushes out of local minima
Population: Goal: 0 1 1 1 1 1

110000 Mutation needed to find the goal

101000
100100
010000
 Example
• Solution = 0 0 1 0 1 0
• Fitness(x) = #digits that match solution
A) 0 1 0 1 0 1 Score: 1
B) 1 1 1 1 0 1 Score: 1
C) 0 1 1 0 1 1 Score: 3
D) 1 0 1 1 0 0 Score: 3

Recombine top two twice.

Note: 64 possible combinations
 Example
• Solution = 0 0 1 0 1 0 • Next generation:
C) 0 1 1 0 1 1 E) 0 0 1 1 0 0
D) 1 0 1 1 0 0 F) 0 1 1 0 1 0

E) 0 | 0 1 1 0 0 Score: 4 G) 0 1 1 | 1 0 0 Score: 3
F) 1 | 1 1 0 1 1 Score: 3 H) 0 0 1 | 0 1 0 Score: 6
G) 0 1 1 0 1 | 0 Score: 4 I) 0 0 | 1 0 1 0 Score: 6
H) 1 0 1 1 0 | 1 Score: 2 J) 0 1 | 1 1 0 0 Score: 3

DONE! Got it in 10 guesses.

 Issues
• How select original population?
• How handle non-binary solution types?
• What should be the size of the population?
• What is the optimal mutation rate?
• How are mates picked for crossover?
• Can any chromosome appear more than once in a
population?
• When should the GA halt?
• Local minima?
• Parallel algorithms?
GAs for Mazes
 GAs for Optimization
• Traveling salesman problem
• Eaters
• Hierarchical GAs for game playing
 GAs for Control
• Simulator
 GAs for Graphic Animation
• Simulator
• Evolving Circles
• 3D Animation
• Scientific American Frontiers
 Biased Roulette Wheel
• For each hypothesis, spin the roulette wheel
to determine the guess
 Inversion
• Invert selected subsequence
• 1 0 | 1 1 0 | 1 1 -> 1 0 0 1 1 1 1
 Elitism
• Some of the best chromosomes from previous
generation replace some of the worst
chromosomes from current generation
 K-point crossover
• Pick k random splice points to crossover parents
• Example
–K=3
1 1 | 1 1 1 | 1 1 | 1 1 1 1 1 -> 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
00|000|00|00000 001110011111
 Diversity Measure
• Fitness ignores diversity
• As a result, populations tend to become
uniform
• Rank-space method
– Sort population by sum of fitness rank and
diversity rank
– Diversity rank is the result of sorting by the
function 1/d2
 Classifier Systems
• GAs and load balancing
• SAMUEL