Search: Search Space, Algorithms
Snehasis Mukherjee
Shiv Nadar IoE, Delhi NCR
[email protected]
Search: Algorithm (vs.) AI
Algorithmic approach: a preset, rigid, coded recipe that gets
executed when it encounters a trigger
AI approach: a group of algorithms that can modify its algorithms
and create new algorithms
response to learned inputs and data
NOT hardcoded, relying solely on the inputs
“Intelligence”: Adaptability to changes in input
Artificial Intelligence is the study of building
agents that act rationally.
Search in AI
Most of the time, AI agents perform some kind of search algorithm
A search problem consists of:
• A State Space. Set of all possible states where you can be.
• A Start State. The state from where the search begins.
• A Goal State. A function that looks at the current state returns whether or not it is
the goal state.
➢ The Solution to a search problem is a sequence of actions, called the plan
➢ Plan is achieved through search algorithms
Search Algorithms
Uninformed Search Algorithms
Also called Blind Search
Blind: No information about the goal node
No heuristics are used
Examples:
DFS
BFS
Uniform Cost Search
Some Terminologies
Problem graph: A graph containing the start node S and
the goal node G.
Strategy: Describes the manner in which the graph will be
traversed to get to G.
Fringe: A data structure used to store all the possible
states (nodes) that you can go from the current states.
Tree: that results while traversing to the goal node.
Solution plan: The sequence of nodes from S to G.
Informed Search Algorithms
Information about Goal state is known
The information is obtained from heuristics
More efficient compared to uninformed search
Examples:
Greed Search
A* tree search
A* graph search
Heuristics
a function estimating how close a state is to the goal state
Basically a distance measure
Lesser the distance, closer to the goal state
Examples:
Euclidian Distance
Manhattan Distance
