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Problems, Problem Spaces, and Search

This document discusses problem solving and search algorithms. It begins by outlining steps for building a problem-solving program and defining a problem. It then discusses breadth-first search and depth-first search algorithms. The document provides examples of different types of problems and how they can be represented. It concludes by discussing characteristics of different problems.

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Aditya Verma
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
34 views

Problems, Problem Spaces, and Search

This document discusses problem solving and search algorithms. It begins by outlining steps for building a problem-solving program and defining a problem. It then discusses breadth-first search and depth-first search algorithms. The document provides examples of different types of problems and how they can be represented. It concludes by discussing characteristics of different problems.

Uploaded by

Aditya Verma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 27

Problems, Problem Spaces, and Search

15

Building a Problem-Solving Program


1. Define the problem precisely.
2. Analyze the problem.
3. Represent the task knowledge.
4. Choose and apply representation and reasoning
techniques.

16

One Legal Chess Move

17

Another Way to Describe Chess Moves

18

A Water Jug Problem

19

Production Rules for the


Water Jug Problem

20

A Water Jug Problem (Contd)

21

One Solution to the


Water Jug Problem

22

To Specify a Problem
1. Define the state space.
2. Specify the initial states.
3. Specify the goal states.
4. Specify the operations.

23

Production Systems
1. A set of rules.
2. Knowledge/databases.
3. A control strategy.
4. A rule applier.

24

Algorithm : Breadth-First Search


1. Create a variable called NODE-LIST and set it to the initial state.
2. Until a goal state is found or NODE-LIST is empty:
(a)Remove the first element from NODE-LIST and call it E. If NODELIST was empty, quit.
(b) For each way that each rule can match the state described in E
do:
(i) Apply the rule to generate a new state,
(ii) If the new state is a goal state, quit and return this state.
(iii) Otherwise, add the new state to the end of NODE-LIST.
25

Two Levels of a Breadth-First


Search Tree

26

Algorithm : Depth-First Search


1. If the initial state is a goal state, quit and return success.
2. Otherwise, do the following until success or failure is signaled:
(a) Generate a successor, E, of the initial state. If there are no more
successors, 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.

27

A Depth-First Search Tree

28

Problem Characteristics
Is the problem decomposable into a set of (nearly) independent smaller or
easier subproblems?
Can solution steps be ignored or at least undone if they prove unwise?
Is the problems universe predictable?
Is a good solution to the problem obvious without comparison to all other
possible solutions?
Is the desired solution a state of the world or a path to a state?
Is a large amount of knowledge absolutely required to solve the problem, or
is knowledge important only to constrain the search?
Can a computer that is simply given the problem return the solution, or will
the solution of the problem require interaction between the computer and a
person?
30

A Decomposable Problem

31

A Simple Blocks World Problem

32

A Proposed Solution for the


Blocks Problem

33

An Example of the 8-Puzzle

34

Facts about Marcus


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 1991 A.D.

35

Two Ways of Deciding That Marcus is Dead

36

An Instance of the Traveling Salesman


Problem

37

Two Paths Among the Cities

38

The Four Categories of


Systems

Production

39

A Search Graph for the Water


Jug Problem

40

Algorithm : Check Duplicate Nodes


1. Examine the set of nodes that have been created so far to see if the new node
already exists.
2. If it does not-simply add it to the graph just as for a tree.
3. If it does already exist, then do the following:
(a) Set the node that is being expanded to point to the already existing-node
corresponding to its successor rather than to the new one. The new one can simply
be thrown away.
(b) If you are keeping track of the best (shortest or otherwise least-cost) path to each
node, then check to see if the new path is better or worse than the old one. If worse,
do nothing. If better, record the new path as the correct path to use to get to the
node and propagate the corresponding change in cost down through successor nodes
as necessary.
41

Some Cryptarithmetic Problems

42

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