UNIT-I

PROBLEM SOLVING

Introduction to AI – AI Applications – Problem solving agents – search algorithms –

uninformed search
strategies – Heuristic search strategies – Local search and optimization problems –
adversarial search
– constraint satisfaction problems (CSP)

Introduction to AI

Artificial Intelligence is composed of two words Artificial and Intelligence, where Artificial defines "man-made,"
and intelligence defines "thinking power", hence AI means "a man-made thinking power."

It is a branch of computer science by which we can create intelligent machines which can behave like a human,
think like humans, and able to make decisions.

Different fields under AI

AI can be broken down into two major fields, Machine Learning (ML) and Neural Networks (NN). Both are
subfields under Artificial Intelligence, and each one has its methods and algorithms to help solve problems.
Machine learning
Machine Learning (ML) makes computers learn from data and experience to improve their performance on some
tasks or decision-making processes. ML uses statistics and probability theory for this purpose. Machine learning
uses algorithms to parse data, learn from it, and make determinations without explicit programming
Deep learning
Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that uses multi-layered artificial neural networks to deliver state-of-
the-art accuracy in object detection, speech recognition and language translation. Deep learning is a crucial
technology behind driverless cars and enables the machine analysis of large amounts of complex data
AI Applications

1. AI Application in E-Commerce
 Personalized Shopping
Artificial Intelligence technology is used to create recommendation engines through which you can
engage better with your customers. These recommendations are made in accordance with their browsing history,
preference, and interests. I
 AI-Powered Assistants

Virtual shopping assistants and chatbots help improve the user experience while shopping online. Natural
Language Processing is used to make the conversation sound as human and personal as possible
 Fraud Prevention
Credit card frauds and fake reviews are two of the most significant issues that E-Commerce companies
 deal with. By considering the usage patterns, AI can help reduce the possibility of credit card fraud taking place.
Many customers prefer to buy a product or service based on customer reviews. AI can help identify and handle fake
reviews.
2. Applications Of Artificial Intelligence in Education
 Creating Smart Content
Digitization of content like video lectures, conferences, and textbook guides can be made using Artificial
Intelligence.
 Voice Assistants
Without even the direct involvement of the lecturer or the teacher, a student can access extra learning
material or assistance through Voice Assistants.
3. Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Lifestyle
Artificial Intelligence has a lot of influence on our lifestyle.
 Autonomous Vehicles
Automobile manufacturing companies like Toyota, Audi, Volvo, and Tesla use machine learning to train computers
to think and evolve like humans when it comes to driving in any environment and object detection to avoid
accidents.
 Spam Filters
The email that we use in our day-to-day lives has AI that filters out spam emails sending them to spam or trash
folders, letting us see the filtered content only.
 Facial Recognition
Our favorite devices like our phones, laptops, and PCs use facial recognition techniques by using face filters to
detect and identify in order to provide secure access.
4. Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Navigation
Based on research from MIT, GPS technology can provide users with accurate, timely, and detailed information to
improve safety. The technology uses a combination of Convolutional Neural Networks and Graph Neural Networks
5. Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Robotics
Robotics is another field where Artificial Intelligence applications are commonly used. Robots powered by AI use
real-time updates to sense obstacles in its path and pre-plan its journey instantly.
It can be used for:
 Carrying goods in hospitals, factories, and warehouses
 Cleaning offices and large equipment
 Inventory management
6. Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Human Resource

Artificial Intelligence helps with blind hiring. Using machine learning software, you can examine applications
based on specific parameters. AI drive systems can scan job candidates' profiles, and resumes to provide recruiters
an understanding of the talent pool they must choose from.
7. Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
Artificial Intelligence finds diverse applications in the healthcare sector. AI applications are used in healthcare to
build sophisticated machines that can detect diseases and identify cancer cells. Artificial Intelligence can help
analyze chronic conditions with lab and other medical data to ensure early diagnosis. AI uses the combination of
historical data and medical intelligence for the discovery of new drugs.
8. Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture
Artificial Intelligence is used to identify defects and nutrient deficiencies in the soil. This is done using computer
vision, robotics, and machine learning applications, AI can analyze where weeds are growing. AI bots can help to
harvest crops at a higher volume and faster pace than human laborers.
9. Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Gaming
Another sector where Artificial Intelligence applications have found prominence is the gaming sector. AI can be
used to create smart, human-like NPCs to interact with the players.
AGENTS
Artificial intelligence is defined as the study of rational agents. A rational agent could be anything that makes
decisions, as a person, firm, machine, or software. It carries out an action with the best outcome after considering
past and current percepts(agent’s perceptual inputs at a given instance). An AI system is composed of an agent and
its environment. The agents act in their environment. The environment may contain other agents.
An agent is anything that can be viewed as :
 perceiving its environment through sensors and
 acting upon that environment through actuators
Note: Every agent can perceive its own actions (but not always the effects)

To understand the structure of Intelligent Agents, we should be familiar

with Architecture and Agent programs. Architecture is the machinery that the agent executes on. It is a device with
sensors and actuators, for example, a robotic car, a camera, a PC. Agent program is an implementation of an agent
function. An agent function is a map from the percept sequence(history of all that an agent has perceived to date) to
an action.

Agent = Architecture + Agent Program

Examples of Agent:
 A software agent has Keystrokes, file contents, received network packages which act as sensors and displays on
the screen, files, sent network packets acting as actuators.
 A Human-agent has eyes, ears, and other organs which act as sensors, and hands, legs, mouth, and other body
parts acting as actuators.
 A Robotic agent has Cameras and infrared range finders which act as sensors and various motors acting as
actuators.
Types of Agents
Agents can be grouped into five classes based on their degree of perceived intelligence and capability :
 Simple Reflex Agents
 Model-Based Reflex Agents
 Goal-Based Agents
 Utility-Based Agents
 Learning Agent

TYPES OF ENVIRONMENT
An environment in artificial intelligence is the surrounding of the agent. The agent takes input from the environment
through sensors and delivers the output to the environment through actuators. There are several types of
environments:
 Fully Observable vs Partially Observable
 Deterministic vs Stochastic
 Competitive vs Collaborative
 Single-agent vs Multi-agent
 Static vs Dynamic
 Discrete vs Continuous
 Episodic vs Sequential
 Known vs Unknown
 Steps problem-solving in AI: The problem of AI is directly associated with the nature of humans and their
activities. So we need a number of finite steps to solve a problem which makes human easy works.
These are the following steps which require to solve a problem :
 Problem definition: Detailed specification of inputs and acceptable system solutions.
 Problem analysis: Analyse the problem thoroughly.
 Knowledge Representation: collect detailed information about the problem and define all possible techniques.
 Problem-solving: Selection of best techniques.

Components to formulate the associated problem:

 Initial State: This state requires an initial state for the problem which starts the AI agent towards a specified goal.
In this state new methods also initialize problem domain solving by a specific class.
 Action: This stage of problem formulation works with function with a specific class taken from the initial state and
all possible actions done in this stage.
 Transition: This stage of problem formulation integrates the actual action done by the previous action stage and
collects the final stage to forward it to their next stage.
 Goal test: This stage determines that the specified goal achieved by the integrated transition model or not,
whenever the goal achieves stop the action and forward into the next stage to determines the cost to achieve the
goal.
 Path costing: This component of problem-solving numerical assigned what will be the cost to achieve the goal. It
requires all hardware software and human working cost.

Problem-solving agents:
Problem-solving agent in Artificial Intelligence is goal-based agents that focus on goals, is one embodiment of a group of
algorithms, and techniques to solve a well-defined problem in the area of Artificial Intelligence. And these agents are
different from reflex agents who just have to map states into actions and can’t map when storing and learning both are
bigger. The different stages that Problem-solving agents perform, to arrive at a desired state or solution are:

1. Articulating or expressing the desired goal and the problem clearly.

2. Explore and examine

3. Find the solution from the various algorithms on the table.

4. The final step is Execution

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

Search Algorithm Terminologies:

o Search: Searchingis 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.
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.
Actions: It gives the description of all the available actions to the agent.
Transition model: A description of what each action do, can be represented as a transition model.
Path Cost: It is a function which assigns a numeric cost to each path.
Solution: It is an action sequence which leads from the start node to the goal node.
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.

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.

It can be divided into five main types:

o Breadth-first search
o Uniform cost search
o Depth-first search
o Iterative deepening depth-first search
o 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.

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:

1. Breadth-first Search
2. Depth-first Search
3. Depth-limited Search
4. Iterative deepening depth-first search
5. Uniform cost search
6. 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 node 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 are more than one solutions for a given problem, then BFS will provide the minimal solution which requires
the least number of steps.

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:

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.

2. Depth-first Search
o Depth-first search isa 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.

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.

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:

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.

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 form 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:

o 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 isO(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.

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 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 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.

Advantages:

o It combines the benefits of BFS and DFS search algorithm in terms of fast search and memory efficiency.

Disadvantages:

o 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 is ifthe 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.

5. Bidirectional Search Algorithm:

Bidirectional search algorithm runs two simultaneous searches, one form 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 subgraphs 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.

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.

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 help
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:

1. 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 unit a goal state is found.

In the informed search we will discuss two main algorithms which are given below:

o Best First Search Algorithm(Greedy search)

o A* Search Algorithm

1.) 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.

1. f(n)= h(n).

Were, 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 list, 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 the 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.
Expand the nodes of S and put in the CLOSED list

Initialization: Open [A, B], Closed [S]

Iteration 1: Open [A], Closed [S, B]

Iteration2: Open [E,F,A],Closed [S,B]

: Open [E, A], Closed [S, B, F]

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.

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 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).
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.

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.

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.
o A* algorithm expands all nodes which satisfy the condition f(n)<="" li="">

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)

 COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT SEARCH ALGORITHMS BASED ON VARIOUS PROPERTIES

 BFS guarantees optimal solutions but uses a lot of memory.

 DFS is memory-efficient but can get stuck in deep/infinite paths.
 Depth-Limited Search mitigates infinite depth issues but may fail if the goal is beyond the limit.
 Iterative Deepening balances DFS’s space efficiency with BFS’s completeness.
 Uniform Cost Search is optimal for weighted graphs but is slower than BFS for uniform costs.
 Bidirectional Search is highly efficient for certain problems but requires extra implementation effort.
COMPARISON OF BEST-FIRST SEARCH (GREEDY SEARCH) AND
A SEARCH* BASED ON VARIOUS PROPERTIES

Key Differences:
 Best-First Search relies only on the heuristic h(n)h(n)h(n), making it fast but often suboptimal.
 A* balances heuristic h(n)h(n)h(n) with actual cost g(n)g(n)g(n), ensuring optimality if conditions are met.
 If the heuristic is admissible and consistent, A* is guaranteed to find the shortest path.

When to use which?

 Use Best-First Search when you need speed and can tolerate suboptimal solutions.
 Use A* when you need the shortest path and can afford slightly higher computational cost.
Local Search and Optimization Problems:
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.

function HILL-CLIMBING( problem) return a state that is a local maximum

input: problem, a problem
local variables: current, a node.
neighbor, a node.

current MAKE-NODE(INITIAL-STATE[problem])
loop do
neighbor a highest valued successor of current
if VALUE [neighbor] ≤ VALUE[current] then return STATE[current]
current neighbor

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.

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:

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.
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.
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.
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.
4. Random restart hill climbing:
Random restart hill climbing is a meta-algorithm that addresses the issue of standard hill climbing getting stuck in
local optima by repeatedly running the hill climbing algorithm from different random starting points and selecting the
best solution found across all restarts.

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.

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.
Genetic algorithms
• successor is generated by combining two parent states
• A state is represented as a string over a finite alphabet (e.g. binary) – 8-queens
State = position of 8 queens each in a column
• Start with k randomly generated states (population)
• Evaluation function (fitness function):
– Higher values for better states.
– Opposite to heuristic function, e.g., # non-attacking pairs in 8-queens
• Produce the next generation of states by “simulated evolution” – Random selection – Crossover – Random mutation

The steps of a genetic algorithm are:

1. Initialization: Set up the initial population
2. Evaluation: Determine the fitness of each individual in the population
3. Selection: Choose the fittest individuals from the population to pass on their genetic material
4. Crossover: Combine pairs of parents to create new offspring
5. Mutation: Introduce small random changes to the population to create genetic diversity
6. Replacement: Replace the current population with the new offspring
7. Repeat: Repeat the process for a set number of generations or until a termination criterion is met
 1. Initial population

2.Fitness Calculation (Evaluation)

 3.Selection Based on the Fitness value:

4.Crossover

5.Mutation
6.Replacement
Current population replace with new off spring

7. Repeat: Repeat the process until a termination criterion is met (No queens attack each other)

Adversarial Search

Adversarial search is a search, where we examine the problem which arises when we try to plan ahead of the
world and other agents are planning against us.

 In previous topics, we have studied the search strategies which are only associated with a single agent that aims to
find the solution which often expressed in the form of a sequence of actions.
 But, there might be some situations where more than one agent is searching for the solution in the same search space,
and this situation usually occurs in game playing.
 The environment with more than one agent is termed as multi-agent environment, in which each agent is an
opponent of other agent and playing against each other. Each agent needs to consider the action of other agent and
effect of that action on their performance.
 So, Searches in which two or more players with conflicting goals are trying to explore the same search space
for the solution, are called adversarial searches, often known as Games.
 Games are modeled as a Search problem and heuristic evaluation function, and these are the two main factors which
help to model and solve games in AI.
Types of Games in AI:
Deterministic Non Deterministic

Perfect Chess, Checkers, go, Backgammon, monopoly

information Othello

Imperfect Battleships, blind, tic- Bridge, poker, scrabble,

 information tac-toe nuclear war
 Perfect information: A game with the perfect information is that in which agents can look into the complete board.
Agents have all the information about the game, and they can see each other moves also. Examples are Chess,
Checkers, Go, etc.
 Imperfect information: If in a game agents do not have all information about the game and not aware with what's
going on, such type of games are called the game with imperfect information, such as tic-tac-toe, Battleship, blind,
Bridge, etc.
 Deterministic games: Deterministic games are those games which follow a strict pattern and set of rules for the
games, and there is no randomness associated with them. Examples are chess, Checkers, Go, tic-tac-toe, etc.
 Non-deterministic games: Non-deterministic are those games which have various unpredictable events and has a
factor of chance or luck. This factor of chance or luck is introduced by either dice or cards. These are random, and
each action response is not fixed. Such games are also called as stochastic games.
Example: Backgammon, Monopoly, Poker, etc

Zero-Sum Game
o Zero-sum games are adversarial search which involves pure competition.
o In Zero-sum game each agent's gain or loss of utility is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of utility of
another agent.
o One player of the game try to maximize one single value, while other player tries to minimize it.
o Each move by one player in the game is called as ply.
o Chess and tic-tac-toe are examples of a Zero-sum game.

Zero-sum game: Embedded thinking

The Zero-sum game involved embedded thinking in which one agent or player is trying to figure out:

o What to do.
o How to decide the move
o Needs to think about his opponent as well
o The opponent also thinks what to do

Each of the players is trying to find out the response of his opponent to their actions. This requires embedded
thinking or backward reasoning to solve the game problems in AI.

Formalization of the problem:

A game can be defined as a type of search in AI which can be formalized of the following elements:

o Initial state: It specifies how the game is set up at the start.

o Player(s): It specifies which player has moved in the state space.
o Action(s): It returns the set of legal moves in state space.
o Result(s, a): It is the transition model, which specifies the result of moves in the state space.
o Terminal-Test(s): Terminal test is true if the game is over, else it is false at any case. The state where the
game ends is called terminal states.
o Utility(s, p): A utility function gives the final numeric value for a game that ends in terminal states s for
player p. It is also called payoff function. For Chess, the outcomes are a win, loss, or draw and its payoff
values are +1, 0, ½. And for tic-tac-toe, utility values are +1, -1, and 0.

Game tree:
 A game tree is a tree where nodes of the tree are the game states and Edges of the tree are the moves by
players. Game tree involves initial state, actions function, and result Function.

Example: Tic-Tac-Toe game tree:

The following figure is showing part of the game-tree for tic-tac-toe game. Following are some key points of
the game:

 There are two players MAX and MIN.

 Players have an alternate turn and start with MAX.
 MAX maximizes the result of the game tree
 MIN minimizes the result.

Example Explanation:

 From the initial state, MAX has 9 possible moves as he starts first. MAX place x and MIN place o, and both
player plays alternatively until we reach a leaf node where one player has three in a row or all squares are
filled.
 Both players will compute each node, minimax, the minimax value which is the best achievable utility
against an optimal adversary.
 Suppose both the players are well aware of the tic-tac-toe and playing the best play. Each player is doing his
best to prevent another one from winning. MIN is acting against Max in the game.
 So in the game tree, we have a layer of Max, a layer of MIN, and each layer is called as Ply. Max place x,
then MIN puts o to prevent Max from winning, and this game continues until the terminal node.
 In this either MIN wins, MAX wins, or it's a draw. This game-tree is the whole search space of possibilities
that MIN and MAX are playing tic-tac-toe and taking turns alternately.

Hence adversarial Search for the minimax procedure works as follows:

 It aims to find the optimal strategy for MAX to win the game.
 It follows the approach of Depth-first search.
 In the game tree, optimal leaf node could appear at any depth of the tree.
 Propagate the minimax values up to the tree until the terminal node discovered.

In a given game tree, the optimal strategy can be determined from the minimax value of each node, which can be
written as MINIMAX(n). MAX prefer to move to a state of maximum value and MIN prefer to move to a state of
minimum value then:

Constraint Satisfaction Problem

A Constraint Satisfaction Problem is a mathematical problem where the solution must meet a number of
constraints. A CSP involves variables that must be assigned values from a given domain while satisfying a set of
constraints. Constraint propagation aims to simplify these problems by reducing the domains of variables,
thereby making the search for solutions more efficient.
Constraint propagation works by iteratively narrowing down the domains of variables based on the constraints.
This process continues until no more values can be eliminated from any domain. The primary goal is to reduce
the search space and make it easier to find a solution.

Steps in Constraint Propagation

Initialization: Start with the initial domains of all variables.
Propagation: Apply constraints to reduce the domains of variables.
Iteration: Repeat the propagation step until a stable state is reached, where no further reduction is possible.

Example
Consider a simple CSP with two variables, X and Y, each with domains {1, 2, 3}, and a constraint X ≠ Y.
Constraint propagation will iteratively reduce the domains as follows:
If X is assigned 1, then Y cannot be 1, so Y's domain becomes {2, 3}.
If Y is then assigned 2, X cannot be 2, so X's domain is reduced to {1, 3}.
This process continues until a stable state is reached.

Types of Domains in CSP

There are following two types of domains which are used by the variables :

 Discrete Domain: It is an infinite domain which can have one state for multiple variables. For example, a start state can
be allocated infinite times for each variable.
 Finite Domain: It is a finite domain which can have continuous states describing one domain for one specific variable. It
is also called a continuous domain.

Constraint Types in CSP

 With respect to the variables, basically there are following types of constraints:

 Unary Constraints: It is the simplest type of constraints that restricts the value of a single variable.
 Binary Constraints: It is the constraint type which relates two variables. A value x2 will contain a value which lies
between x1 and x3.
 Global Constraints: It is the constraint type which involves an arbitrary number of variables.

Some special types of solution algorithms are used to solve the following types of constraints:

 Linear Constraints: These type of constraints are commonly used in linear programming where each variable containing an
integer value exists in linear form only.
 Non-linear Constraints: These type of constraints are used in non-linear programming where each variable (an integer
value) exists in a non-linear form.

Note: A special constraint which works in real-world is known as Preference constraint.

Constraint Propagation
Constraint propagation is a fundamental concept in constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs). A CSP involves
variables that must be assigned values from a given domain while satisfying a set of constraints. Constraint
propagation aims to simplify these problems by reducing the domains of variables, thereby making the search for
solutions more efficient.
Constraint propagation works by iteratively narrowing down the domains of variables based on the constraints. This
process continues until no more values can be eliminated from any domain. The primary goal is to reduce the search
space and make it easier to find a solution.

Steps in Constraint Propagation

Initialization: Start with the initial domains of all variables.
Propagation: Apply constraints to reduce the domains of variables.
Iteration: Repeat the propagation step until a stable state is reached, where no further reduction is possible.

Example
Consider a simple CSP with two variables, X and Y, each with domains {1, 2, 3}, and a constraint X ≠ Y.
Constraint propagation will iteratively reduce the domains as follows:
If X is assigned 1, then Y cannot be 1, so Y's domain becomes {2, 3}.
If Y is then assigned 2, X cannot be 2, so X's domain is reduced to {1, 3}.
This process continues until a stable state is reached.

Applications of Constraint Propagation

Constraint propagation is widely used in various AI applications.
Scheduling
In scheduling problems, tasks must be assigned to time slots without conflicts. Constraint propagation helps by
reducing the possible time slots for each task based on constraints like availability and dependencies.
Planning
AI planning involves creating a sequence of actions to achieve a goal. Constraint propagation simplifies the
planning process by reducing the possible actions at each step, ensuring that the resulting plan satisfies all
constraints.
Resource Allocation
In resource allocation problems, resources must be assigned to tasks in a way that meets all constraints, such as
capacity limits and priority rules.

Algorithms for Constraint Propagation

Arc Consistency Algorithm
Arc consistency ensures that for every value of one variable, there is a consistent value in another variable
connected by a constraint.
Ex: AC-3, AC-4, AC-2001
 Path Consistency Algorithm
Path consistency extends arc consistency by ensuring consistency over paths of three variables.
Example: PC-2 Algorithm.
k-Consistency Algorithm
k-Consistency generalizes the concept of arc and path consistency to k variables. It ensures that for every subset
of k-1 variables, there is a consistent value in the kth variable. Higher levels of consistency provide more pruning
but are computationally more expensive.

Comparison of Techniques
Algorithm Strength When to Use
AC-3 Efficient, but limited to binary CSPs General-purpose CSP solving
AC-4 More efficient for dense graphs Large-scale CSPs
Problems needing higher-order
PC-2 Ensures path consistency
consistency
Stronger pruning but computationally
k-Consistency Highly constrained problems
expensive

Popular Problems with CSP (Applications)

The following problems are some of the popular problems that can be solved using CSP:

1. CryptArithmetic (Coding alphabets to numbers.)

2. n-Queen (In an n-queen problem, n queens should be placed in an nXn matrix such that no queen shares the same row, column or
diagonal.)
3. Map Coloring (coloring different regions of map, ensuring no adjacent regions have the same color)
4. Crossword (everyday puzzles appearing in newspapers)
5. Sudoku (a number grid)
6. Latin Square Problem

 Map Coloring: The problem where the constraint is that no adjacent sides can have the same color.
 Sudoku Playing: The gameplay where the constraint is that no number from 0-9 can be repeated in the same row or
column.

 n-queen problem: In n-queen problem, the constraint is that no queen should be placed either diagonally, in the
same row or column.

 Crossword: In crossword problem, the constraint is that there should be the correct formation of the words, and it
should be meaningful.

 Latin square Problem: In this game, the task is to search the pattern which is occurring several times in the game.
They may be shuffled but will contain the same digits.
Cryptarithmetic Problem

Cryptarithmetic Problem is a type of constraint satisfaction problem where the game is about digits and its unique
replacement either with alphabets or other symbols. In cryptarithmetic problem,
the digits (0-9) get substituted by some possible alphabets or symbols. The task in cryptarithmetic problem is to
substitute each digit with an alphabet to get the result arithmetically correct.
We can perform all the arithmetic operations on a given cryptarithmetic problem.
The rules or constraints on a cryptarithmetic problem are as follows:

 There should be a unique digit to be replaced with a unique alphabet.

 The result should satisfy the predefined arithmetic rules, i.e., 2+2 =4, nothing else.
 Digits should be from 0-9 only.
 There should be only one carry forward, while performing the addition operation on a problem.
 The problem can be solved from both sides, i.e., lefthand side (L.H.S), or righthand side (R.H.S)

Let’s understand the cryptarithmetic problem as well its constraints better with the help of an example:

 Given a cryptarithmetic problem, i.e., S E N D + M O R E = M O N E Y

In this example, add both terms S E N D and M O R E to bring M O N E Y as a result.

Follow the below steps to understand the given problem by breaking it into its subparts:
 Starting from the left hand side (L.H.S) , the terms are S and M. Assign a digit which could give a satisfactory
result. Let’s assign S->9 and M->1.

Hence, we get a satisfactory result by adding up the terms and got an assignment for O as O->0 as well.

 Now, move ahead to the next terms E and O to get N as its output.
Adding E and O, which means 5+0=0, which is not possible because according to cryptarithmetic constraints, we
cannot assign the same digit to two letters. So, we need to think more and assign some other value.

Note: When we will solve further, we will get one carry, so after applying it, the answer will be
satisfied.

 Further, adding the next two terms N and R we get,

But, we have already assigned E->5. Thus, the above result does not satisfy the values
because we are getting a different value for E. So, we need to think more.
Again, after solving the whole problem, we will get a carryover on this term, so our answer will be satisfied.

where 1 will be carry forward to the above term

Let’s move ahead.

 Again, on adding the last two terms, i.e., the rightmost terms D and E, we get Y as its result.
 where 1 will be carry forward to the above term

 Keeping all the constraints in mind, the final resultant is as follows:

 Below is the representation of the assignment of the digits to the alphabets.

More examples of cryptarithmatic problems can be:

Similarly, we can also perform multiplication on the cryptarithmetic problems.