Amity School of Engineering and Technology

Problem Solving Approach in AI

Module -I

Programme: B. Tech-IT,
Semester: VIth
Course: Artificial Intelligence (CSE401)
Faculty: Dr. Seema Rawat
 Index

• Problem Solving
• Problem Characteristics
• State Space Representation
 Learning Objective

To gain the knowledge about general AI approach to solve

various types of problems

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 Learning Outcomes

• Basic understanding of the types of problems

• To know the basic concepts about techniques to solve the

problems using Artificial Intelligence concepts
 Problem solving

Problem solving is a process of generating solutions from observed data.

Key elements of problem solving

–State: A state is a representation of problem at a given moment.

–State space: Contains all the possible states for a given problem.

–Operators: the available actions performed is called operators.

–Initial state: position from which the problem-solving process may start.

–Goal state: solution to the problem.

 General Problem
solving Approach

To build a system and to solve a particular problem, there are four approaches:

1. Define the problem precisely (apply the State Space representation).

2. Analyze the problem.

3. Isolate and represent the task knowledge that is necessary to solve the problem.

4. Choose the best problem solving technique(s) and apply it to the particular
problem.
 Problem Characteristics

To choose an appropriate method for a particular problem:

• Is the problem decomposable?

• Can solution steps be ignored or undone?
• Is the universe predictable?
• Is a good solution absolute or relative?
• Is the solution a state or a path?
• What is the role of knowledge?
• Does the task require human-interaction?
 Is the problem decomposable?
• Can the problem be broken down to smaller problems to be
solved independently?

• Decomposable problem can be solved easily.

 Can solution steps be ignored or undone?

Recoverable (Backtrack)
Irrecoverable
 Can solution steps be ignored or undone?

The 8-Puzzle

Moves can be undone and backtracked.

Recoverable!
Can solution steps be ignored or undone?

Playing Chess
Moves cannot be retracted.

Irrecoverable!
Is the universe predictable?

The 8-Puzzle
Every time we make a move, we know exactly what will happen.

Certain outcome!
Is the universe predictable?

Playing Bridge

We cannot know exactly where all the cards are or what

the other players will do on their turns.

Uncertain outcome!
Is a good solution absolute or relative?

The answer to this query can be either yes or no

Absolute solution : once you get one solution you do need to bother about other
possible solution.

EX- Water Jug Problem and 8 Puzzle problem

Relative Solution : once you get one solution you have to find another possible solution
to check which solution is best (i.e low cost).

Ex-TSP

Different reasoning paths lead to the answer. It does not matter which path we follow.
 Example
• 1.Marcus was a man.
• 2.Marcus was a Pompeian.
• 3.Marcus was born in 40 A.D.
• 4.All men are mortal.
• 5.All Pompeians died when the volcano erupted in 79 A.D.
• 6.No mortal lives longer than 150 years.
• 7.It is now 2004 A.D.

Is Marcus alive?

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Image Source [6] 16
Is the solution a state or a path?

In some problems we are only interested in the state representing the

solution, whereas in other cases we also want to know how we got to
the solution, that is which is the optimum

For natural language understanding, some of the words have different

interpretations. therefore sentence may cause ambiguity. To solve the
problem we need to find interpretation.

Ex-Bank
Role of knowledge

Lot of knowledge helps to constrain the search for a solution.

Playing Chess
Knowledge is important only to constrain the search for a solution.

Knowledge about good strategy and tactics could help to constrain the
search and speed up the execution of the program.

Reading Newspaper
Knowledge about predicting the political trend.
Does the task require human-interaction?

•Solitary problem, in which there is no intermediate communication and

no demand for an explanation of the reasoning process.
Ex-Theorem proving, give basic rules & laws to computer

•Conversational problem, in which intermediate communication is to

provide either additional assistance to the computer or additional
information to the user.
Ex-Problems such as medical diagnosis
 State Space Representation

•Before a solution can be found, the prime condition is that the problem must be
very precisely defined.

By defining it properly, one converts the abstract problem into real workable states
that are really understood.

•A set of all possible states for a given problem is known as the state space of the
problem.

State space representations are highly beneficial in AI because they provide all
possible states, operations and goals.
State Space Representation

• If the entire state space representations for a problem is given, it

is possible to trace the path from the initial state to the goal state
and identify the sequence of operators necessary fordoing it.

• The major deficiency of this method is that it is not possible to

visualize all states for a given problem.

• Moreover, the resources of the computer system are limited to

handle huge state-space representation.
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State space representation of coffee making
 References

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/
[2] https://www.wikipedia.org/
[3] Stuart Russell, Peter Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern
Approach, 4th Edition, 2020, Pearson
[4 ] https://www.sas.com
[5] https://www.tutorialspoint.com/artificial_intelligence
[6] https://www.engineeringenotes.com

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 Bibliography

Artificial Intelligence (2nd ed) by Elaine Rich and Kevin Knight,

McGraw Hill (1991). ISBN 0-07-100894-2

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Thank You

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