CE 451: Applied Artificial Intelligence

Lecture 6 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

Instructor: Dr. Hashim Ali

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi
[Spring 2019]
CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Announcement
 First announced quiz in next lecture (Monday 28 Jan).
 Course – Lecture 4, 5 and 6 (Week2).

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

State Space Graphs and Search Trees

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

State Space Graphs

 State space graph: A mathematical

representation of a search problem
 Nodes are (abstracted) world configurations
 Arcs represent successors (action results)
 The goal test is a set of goal nodes (maybe only one)

 In a state space graph, each state occurs only

once!

 We can rarely build this full graph in memory

(it’s too big), but it’s a useful idea

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

State Space Graphs

 State space graph: A mathematical

representation of a search problem a G
 Nodes are (abstracted) world configurations b c
 Arcs represent successors (action results) e
 The goal test is a set of goal nodes (maybe only one) d f
S h
 In a search graph, each state occurs only once! p r
q

 We can rarely build this full graph in memory

Tiny search graph for a
(it’s too big), but it’s a useful idea
tiny search problem

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Search Trees
This is now / start

“N”, 1.0 “E”,

1.0 Possible futures

 A search tree:
 A “what if” tree of plans and their outcomes
 The start state is the root node
 Children correspond to successors
 Nodes show states, but correspond to PLANS that achieve those states
 For most problems, we can never actually build the whole tree
Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search
 Applied Artificial Intelligence

State Space Graphs vs. Search Trees

State Space Graph Each NODE in

the search Search Tree
tree is an S

a G entire PATH in d e p
b c the state b c e h r q
d
e
f
space graph. h r p q f
a a
S h We construct
p q f q c G
p r
q both on a
q c G
demand – and
a
we construct
as little as
possible.
Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search
CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

State Space Graphs vs. Search Trees

Consider this 4-state graph: How big is its search tree (from S)?

S G

Important: Lots of repeated structure in the search tree!

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search
CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Why search can be hard?

Assuming b=10 nodes, 1000 nodes/sec, 100 bytes/node

Depth of Nodes to Time Memory

solution expand
0 1 10-3 second 100 bytes

2 111 10-1 second 11 kbytes

4 11,111 11 seconds 1 megabyte

8 108 31 hours 11 gigabytes

12 1012 35 years 111 terabytes

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Tic tac toe

 Total space possible = 39

 Actual nodes are less
because only legal moves
can be made
 In game trees, its better
to use graph than trees,
WHY?

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

 CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Traversing a state space

 Search algorithms are used to optimally traverse a state space and
retrieve the best path to achieve a goal.
 To successfully design such search algorithms, we should
• be able to analyze their behavior,
• predict their behavior,
• and answer such questions as:
• Is the problem solver guaranteed to find a solution?
• When a solution is found, is it guaranteed to be optimal?
• What is the (time) complexity of the search process?
• How can we (most effectively) reduce search complexity?
 The theory of state space search is our primary tool for answering
these questions.
• Represent the problem as a graph and
• Use graph theory to analyze the structure. Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search
CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Search strategies
 Uninformed search  Local search and optimization
• Breadth-first, depth-first search  Hill-climbing
• Uniform cost search  Simulated annealing
• Depth limited search  Genetic algorithms
• Iterative deepening search  Bayesian approaches (Markov chain
 Informed (heuristic) search Monte Carlo)
• Greedy best-first
• A*
• Memory-bounded heuristic search
• And more….

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Tree Search

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Search Example: Romania

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Searching with a Search Tree

 Search:
 Expand out potential plans (tree nodes)
 Maintain a fringe of partial plans under consideration
 Try to expand as few tree nodes as possible
Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search
CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

General Tree Search

 Important ideas:
 Fringe
 Expansion
 Exploration strategy

 Main question: which fringe nodes to explore?

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search
 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Example: Tree Search

a G
b c
e
d f
S h
p q r

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Depth-First Search

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Depth-First Search
Strategy: expand a G
b c
a deepest node
e
first d f
S h
Implementation: p q r
Fringe is a LIFO
stack S

d e p
b c e h r q
a a h r p q f
p q f q c G

q c G a
a Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search
CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Search Algorithm Properties

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Search Algorithm Properties

 Complete: Guaranteed to find a solution if one exists?
 Optimal: Guaranteed to find the least cost path?
 Time complexity?
 Space complexity? b
1 node
… b nodes
b2 nodes
 Cartoon of search tree:
 b is the branching factor m tiers
 m is the maximum depth
 solutions at various depths
bm nodes
 Number of nodes in entire tree?
 1 + b + b2 + …. bm = O(bm)

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

 CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Depth-First Search (DFS) Properties

 What nodes DFS expand?
 Some left prefix of the tree. 1 node
 Could process the whole tree! b b nodes
…
 If m is finite, takes time O(bm) b2 nodes
m tiers
 How much space does the fringe take?
 Only has siblings on path to root, so O(bm)

 Is it complete? bm nodes
 m could be infinite, so only if we prevent
cycles (more later)

 Is it optimal?
 No, it finds the “leftmost” solution,
regardless of depth or cost
Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search
CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Breadth-First Search

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Breadth-First Search
Strategy: expand a G
b c
a shallowest
d e
node first f
S h
Implementation: p q r
Fringe is a FIFO
queue S

d e p
Search
b c e h r q
Tiers
a a h r p q f
p q f q c G

q c G a
a Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search
CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Breadth-First Search (BFS) Properties

 What nodes does BFS expand?
 Processes all nodes above shallowest solution 1 node
b
 Let depth of shallowest solution be s … b nodes
s tiers
 Search takes time O(bs) b2 nodes

 How much space does the fringe take? bs nodes

 Has roughly the last tier, so O(bs)

 Is it complete? bm nodes
 s must be finite if a solution exists, so yes!

 Is it optimal?
 Only if costs are all 1 (more on costs later)

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Quiz: DFS vs BFS

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Quiz: DFS vs BFS

 When will BFS outperform DFS?

 When will DFS outperform BFS?

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

[Demo: dfs/bfs maze
CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Video of Demo Maze Water DFS/BFS (part 1)

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Video of Demo Maze Water DFS/BFS (part 2)

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Iterative Deepening
 Idea: get DFS’s space advantage with BFS’s
time / shallow-solution advantages
b
 Run a DFS with depth limit 1. If no solution… …
 Run a DFS with depth limit 2. If no solution…
 Run a DFS with depth limit 3. …..

 Isn’t that wastefully redundant?

 Generally most work happens in the lowest
level searched, so not so bad!

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Cost-Sensitive Search
GOAL
a
2 2
b c
3
2
1 8
2 e
3 d f
9 8 2
START
h
1 4 2
p 4 r
1 q
5
BFS finds the shortest path in terms of number of actions.
It does not find the least-cost path. We will now cover
a similar algorithm which does find the least-cost path.
Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search
 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Uniform Cost Search

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Uniform Cost Search

2 a G
Strategy: expand a b c
1 8 2
cheapest node first: 2 e
3 d f

Fringe is a priority S 9 h 8 2 1
p r
queue (priority: 1 q
15
cumulative cost)
S 0
d 3 e 9 p 1
b 4 c 11 e 5 h 17 r 11 q 16
Cost a 6 a h 13 r 7 p q f
contou
p q f 8 q c G
rs
q 11 c G 10 a
a Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search
CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Uniform Cost Search (UCS) Properties

 What nodes does UCS expand?
 Processes all nodes with cost less than cheapest solution!
 If that solution costs C* and arcs cost at least  , then the b c
…
“effective depth” is roughly C*/ 1c 
C*/
 Takes time O(bC*/) (exponential in effective depth) 2c 
“tiers”
3
 How much space does the fringe take?
 Has roughly the last tier, so O(bC*/)

 Is it complete?
 Assuming best solution has a finite cost and minimum arc cost
is positive, yes!

 Is it optimal?
 Yes! (Proof next lecture via A*)
Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search
CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Uniform Cost Issues

 Remember: UCS explores increasing cost
contours … c
1c 
2c 
3
 The good: UCS is complete and optimal!

 The bad:
 Explores options in every “direction”
 No information about goal location
Start Goal

 We’ll fix that soon! [Demo: empty grid UCS

(L2D5)]
Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search
CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Video of Demo Empty UCS

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Video of Demo Maze with Deep/Shallow Water --- DFS, BFS, or UCS? (part 1)

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Video of Demo Maze with Deep/Shallow Water --- DFS, BFS, or UCS? (part 2)

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Video of Demo Maze with Deep/Shallow Water --- DFS, BFS, or UCS? (part 3)

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

The One Queue

 All these search algorithms are the
same except for fringe strategies
 Conceptually, all fringes are priority
queues (i.e. collections of nodes with
attached priorities)
 Practically, for DFS and BFS, you can
use stacks and queues.

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Search and Models

 Search operates over

models of the world
 The agent doesn’t
actually try all the plans
out in the real world!
 Planning is all “in
simulation”
 Your search is only as
good as your models…

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

Search Gone Wrong?

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search

 CE451 Applied Artificial Intelligence

References & Acknowledgements

 Partially adapted from lecture slides from Stanford University, UCIrvine, and UC
Berkeley.
 Some videos taken from UC Berkeley website.
 Contents from George F. Luger, AI: Structures and strategies for complex problem
solving, 6th Ed.

Lecture 06 – State space search strategies: Uninformed search