Lecture3

Uninformed vs. Informed Search

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 Uninformed vs. Informed Search
• Uninformed Search Strategies
– Breadth-First search
– Depth-First search
– Uniform-Cost search
– Depth-First Iterative Deepening search
• Informed Search Strategies
– Hill climbing
– Best-first search
– Greedy Search
– Beam search
– Algorithm A
– Algorithm A*
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 Example Illustrating Uninformed Search Strategies

S
1 5 8

A B C
3 9
7 4 5
D E G

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 Breadth-First
• Algorithm outline:
– Always select from the OPEN the node with the smallest depth for
expansion, and put all newly generated nodes into OPEN
– OPEN is organized as FIFO (first-in, first-out) list, I.e., a queue.
– Terminate if a node selected for expansion is a goal
• Properties
– Complete
– Optimal (i.e., admissible) if all operators have the same cost.
Otherwise, not optimal but finds solution with shortest path
length (shallowest solution).
– Exponential time and space complexity,
O(b^d) nodes will be generated, where
d is the depth of the solution and
b is the branching factor (i.e., number of children) at each
node
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 Breadth-First
s
– A complete search tree of 1
depth d where each non-leaf 1 b
node has b children, has a
2
total of 1 + b + b^2 + ... + b^d b^2
= (b^(d+1) - 1)/(b-1) nodes
– Time complexity (# of nodes
generated): O(b^d)
– Space complexity (maximum
length of OPEN): O(b^d) d b^d

– For a complete search tree of depth 12, where every node at depths
0, ..., 11 has 10 children and every node at depth 12 has 0 children,
there are 1 + 10 + 100 + 1000 + ... + 10^12 = (10^13 - 1)/9 =
O(10^12) nodes in the complete search tree.
• BFS is suitable for problems with shallow solutions
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 Breadth-First Search

exp. node OPEN list CLOSED list

{S} {}
S {ABC} {S}
A {BCDEG} {S A}
B { C D E G G' } {S A B}
C { D E G G' G" } {S A B C}
D { E G G' G" } {S A B C D}
E { G G' G" } {S A B C D E}
G { G' G" } {S A B C D E}
Solution path found is S A G <-- this G also has cost 10
Number of nodes expanded (including goal node) = 7
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 CLOSED List: the search tree connected by backpointers

S
1 5 8

A B C
3 9
7 4 5

D E G G’ G”

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 Depth-First (DFS)
• Algorithm outline:
– Always select from the OPEN the node with the
greatest depth for expansion, and put all newly
generated nodes into OPEN
– OPEN is organized as LIFO (last-in, first-out) list.
– Terminate if a node selected for expansion is a goal goal
• May not terminate without a "depth bound," i.e., cutting off search
below a fixed depth D (How to determine the depth bound?)
• Not complete (with or without cycle detection, and with or without
a cutoff depth)
• Exponential time, O(b^d), but only linear space, O(b^d), required
• Can find deep solutions quickly if lucky
• When search hits a deadend, can only back up one level at a time
even if the "problem" occurs because of a bad operator choice near
the top of the tree. Hence, only does "chronological backtracking"
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 Depth-First Search
return GENERAL-SEARCH(problem, ENQUEUE-AT-FRONT)
exp. node OPEN list CLOSED list
{S}
S
S {ABC}
1 8
5
A { D E G B C}
A B C
D {EGBC} 3 9
7
E {GBC}
D E G
G {BC}

Solution path found is S A G <-- this G has cost 10

Number of nodes expanded (including goal node) = 5
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 Uniform-Cost (UCS)
• Let g(n) = cost of the path from the start node
to an open node n
• Algorithm outline:
– Always select from the OPEN the node with the least g(.) value
for expansion, and put all newly generated nodes into OPEN
– Nodes in OPEN are sorted by their g(.) values (in ascending
order)
– Terminate if a node selected for expansion is a goal
• Called “Dijkstra's Algorithm” in the algorithms
literature and similar to “Branch and Bound
Algorithm” in operations research literature
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 Uniform-Cost Search
GENERAL-SEARCH(problem, ENQUEUE-BY-PATH-COST)
exp. node nodes list CLOSED list
{S(0)}
S {A(1) B(5) C(8)} S
A {D(4) B(5) C(8) E(8) G(10)} 1
5 8

D {B(5) C(8) E(8) G(10)} A B C

B {C(8) E(8) G’(9) G(10)} 3
7
9 4 5
C {E(8) G’(9) G(10) G”(13)} D E G G’ G”
E {G’(9) G(10) G”(13) }
G’ {G(10) G”(13) }
Solution path found is S B G <-- this G has cost 9, not 10
Number of nodes expanded
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(including goal node) = 7 20
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 Uniform-Cost (UCS)
• Complete (if cost of each action is not infinitesimal)
– The total # of nodes n with g(n) <= g(goal) in the state space is finite
– If n’ is a child of n, then g(n’) = g(n) + c(n, n’) > g(n)
– Goal node will eventually be generated (put in OPEN) and selected
for expansion (and passes the goal test)
• Optimal/Admissible
– Admissibility depends on the goal test being applied when a node is
removed from the OPEN list, not when it's parent node is expanded
and the node is first generated (delayed goal testing)
– Multiple solution paths (following different backpointers)
– Each solution path that can be generated from an open node n will
have its path cost >= g(n)
– When the first goal node is selected for expansion (and passes the
goal test), its path cost is less than or equal to g(n) of every OPEN
node n (and solutions entailed by n)
• Exponential time and space complexity, O(b^d) where d is the
depth of the solution path
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of the least cost solution
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 Depth-First Iterative Deepening (DFID)
• BF and DF both have exponential time complexity O(b^d)
BF is complete but has exponential space complexity
DF has linear space complexity but is incomplete
• Space is often a harder resource constraint than time
• Can we have an algorithm that
– Is complete
– Has linear space complexity, and
– Has time complexity of O(b^d)
• DFID by Korf in 1985 (17 years after A*)
First do DFS to depth 0 (i.e., treat start node as
having no successors), then, if no solution found,
do DFS to depth 1, etc.
until solution found do
DFS with depth bound c
c = c+1
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 Depth-First Iterative Deepening (DFID)
• Complete (iteratively generate all nodes up to
depth d)
• Optimal/Admissible if all operators have the same
cost. Otherwise, not optimal but does guarantee
finding solution of shortest length (like BF).
• Linear space complexity: O(bd), (like DF)
• Time complexity is a little worse than BFS or DFS
because nodes near the top of the search tree are
generated multiple times, but because almost all
of the nodes are near the bottom of a tree, the
worst case time complexity is still exponential,
O(b^d)
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 Depth-First Iterative Deepening

• If branching factor is b and solution is at

depth d, then nodes at depth d are generated
once, nodes at depth d-1 are generated
twice, etc., and node at depth 1 is generated
d times.
Hence
total(d) = b^d + 2b^(d-1) + ... + db
<= b^d / (1 - 1/b)^2 = O(b^d).
– If b=4, then worst case is 1.78 * 4^d, I.e., 78% more
nodes searched than exist at depth d (in the worst case).
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tota (d ) 1 b d  2 b d  1    (d  1) b 2  d b
b d (1  2 b  1    (d  1) b 2 d  d b1 d )
Let x b  1 , then
tota (d ) b d (1  2 x1    (d  1) x d  2  d x d  1 )
d
b d
(x  x2   xd  1  xd )
dx
d 1
d ( x  x )
b d
dx 1  x
d d x
b / * x d 1  1 when d is large since 1 / b  1* /
dx 1  x
1(1  x)  x ( 1)
b d 2
. Therefore
(1  x)
tota (d ) b d /(1  x) 2 b d /(1  b  1 ) 2
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 Comparing Search Strategies

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 When to use what

• Depth-First Search:
– Many solutions exist
– Know (or have a good estimate of) the depth of solution
• Breadth-First Search:
– Some solutions are known to be shallow
• Uniform-Cost Search:
– Actions have varying costs
– Least cost solution is the required
This is the only uninformed search that worries about costs.
• Iterative-Deepening Search:
– Space is limited and the shortest solution path is required

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 Bi-directional search

• Alternate searching from the start state toward the goal

and from the goal state toward the start.
• Stop when the frontiers intersect.
• Works well only when there are unique start and goal
states and when actions are reversible
• Can lead to finding a solution more quickly (but watch
out for pathological situations.
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 Avoiding Repeated States
• In increasing order of effectiveness in reducing size of
state space (and with increasing computational
costs.)
1. Do not return to the state you just came from.
2. Do not create paths with cycles in them.
3. Do not generate any state that was ever created
before.
• Net effect depends on ``loops'' in state-space.

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 A State Space that Generates an
Exponentially Growing Search Space

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 The end

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