UNIT-2

II Searching Techniques:

Introduction, Problem solving by searching, Searching for solutions, Uniformed searching

techniques, Informed searching techniques, Local search algorithms, Adversarial search methods,
Search techniques used in games, Alpha-Beta pruning.

Search Algorithms in Artificial Intelligence

Search algorithms are one of the most important areas of Artificial Intelligence.

Problem-solving agents:

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.

There are various problem-solving search algorithms.

Search Algorithm Terminologies:

o Search: Searching is a step by step procedure to solve a search-problem in a given

search space. A search problem can have three main factors:
1. Search Space: Search space represents a set of possible solutions, which a
system may have.
2. Start State: It is a state from where agent begins the search.
3. Goal test: It is a function which observe the current state and returns whether
the goal state is achieved or not.
o 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.
o Actions: It gives the description of all the available actions to the agent.
o Transition model: A description of what each action do, can be represented as a
transition model.
o Path Cost: It is a function which assigns a numeric cost to each path.
o Solution: It is an action sequence which leads from the start node to the goal node.
o 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
Difference between Informed and Uninformed Search

Informed Search Uninformed Search

It uses knowledge for the searching It doesn’t use knowledge for searching
process. process.

It finds solution slow as compared to

It finds solution more quickly. informed search.

It may or may not be complete. It is always complete.

Cost is low. Cost is high.

It consumes less time. It consumes moderate time.

It provides the direction regarding the No suggestion is given regarding the solution
solution. in it.

It is less lengthy while implementation. It is more lengthy while implementation.

Greedy Search, A* Search, Graph

BFS,DFS
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.

Note: Backtracking is an algorithm technique for finding all possible solutions using recursion.

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.

4. 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 is O(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.

5. 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

In the third iteration, the algorithm will find the goal node.

Completeness:

This algorithm is complete is if the 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.
6. 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

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)= g(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]

Iteration 2: 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)

Local Search Algorithms

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.

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.

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:
1. If it is goal state, then return success and quit.
2. Else if it is better than the current state then assign new state as a current state.
3. Else if not better than the current state, then return to step2.
o Step 5: Exit.

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.

Solution:

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.

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.

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

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.

Travelling Salesman Problem

In this algorithm, the objective is to find a low-cost tour that starts from a city, visits all cities
en-route exactly once and ends at the same starting city.
Start
Find out all (n -1)! Possible solutions, where n is the total number of cities.
Determine the minimum cost by finding out the cost of each of these (n -1)! solutions.

Finally, keep the one with the minimum cost.

end

Means-Ends Analysis in Artificial Intelligence

o We have studied the strategies which can reason either in forward or backward, but a
mixture of the two directions is appropriate for solving a complex and large problem.
Such a mixed strategy, make it possible that first to solve the major part of a problem
and then go back and solve the small problems arise during combining the big parts of
the problem. Such a technique is called Means-Ends Analysis.
 o Means-Ends Analysis is problem-solving techniques used in Artificial intelligence for
limiting search in AI programs.
o It is a mixture of Backward and forward search technique.
o The MEA technique was first introduced in 1961 by Allen Newell, and Herbert A.
Simon in their problem-solving computer program, which was named as General
Problem Solver (GPS).
o The MEA analysis process centered on the evaluation of the difference between the
current state and goal state.

How means-ends analysis Works:

The means-ends analysis process can be applied recursively for a problem. It is a strategy to
control search in problem-solving. Following are the main Steps which describes the working
of MEA technique for solving a problem.

a. First, evaluate the difference between Initial State and final State.
b. Select the various operators which can be applied for each difference.
c. Apply the operator at each difference, which reduces the difference between the
current state and goal state.

Operator Subgoaling

In the MEA process, we detect the differences between the current state and goal state. Once
these differences occur, then we can apply an operator to reduce the differences. But sometimes
it is possible that an operator cannot be applied to the current state. So we create the subproblem
of the current state, in which operator can be applied, such type of backward chaining in which
operators are selected, and then sub goals are set up to establish the preconditions of the
operator is called Operator Subgoaling.

Algorithm for Means-Ends Analysis:

Let's we take Current state as CURRENT and Goal State as GOAL, then following are the
steps for the MEA algorithm.

o Step 1: Compare CURRENT to GOAL, if there are no differences between both then
return Success and Exit.
o Step 2: Else, select the most significant difference and reduce it by doing the following
steps until the success or failure occurs.
1. Select a new operator O which is applicable for the current difference, and if there is
no such operator, then signal failure.
 2. Attempt to apply operator O to CURRENT. Make a description of two states.
i) O-Start, a state in which O’s preconditions are satisfied.
ii) O-Result, the state that would result if O were applied In O-start.
3. If
(First-Part<------MEA(CURRENT,O-START)
And
(LAST-Part <----- MEA (O-Result, GOAL), are successful, then signal
Success and return the result of combining FIRST-PART, O, and LAST-PART.

The above-discussed algorithm is more suitable for a simple problem and not adequate for
solving complex problems.

C++ vs Java

Example of Mean-Ends Analysis:

Let's take an example where we know the initial state and goal state as given below. In this
problem, we need to get the goal state by finding differences between the initial state and goal
state and applying operators.

Solution:

To solve the above problem, we will first find the differences between initial states and goal
states, and for each difference, we will generate a new state and will apply the operators. The
operators we have for this problem are:

o Move
o Delete
o Expand

1. Evaluating the initial state: In the first step, we will evaluate the initial state and will
compare the initial and Goal state to find the differences between both states.
2. Applying Delete operator: As we can check the first difference is that in goal state there is
no dot symbol which is present in the initial state, so, first we will apply the Delete operator to
remove this dot.

3. Applying Move Operator: After applying the Delete operator, the new state occurs which
we will again compare with goal state. After comparing these states, there is another difference
that is the square is outside the circle, so, we will apply the Move Operator.

4. Applying Expand Operator: Now a new state is generated in the third step, and we will
compare this state with the goal state. After comparing the states there is still one difference
which is the size of the square, so, we will apply Expand operator, and finally, it will generate
the goal state.
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.

o 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.
o 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.
o 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.
o 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.
o 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 Chance Moves

Perfect information Chess, Checkers, go, Othello Backgammon, monopoly

Imperfect information Battleships, blind, tic-tac-toe Bridge, poker, scrabble, nuclear war

o 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.
o 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.
 o 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.
o 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:

o There are two players MAX and MIN.

o Players have an alternate turn and start with MAX.
o MAX maximizes the result of the game tree
o MIN minimizes the result.
Example Explanation:

o 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.
o Both players will compute each node, minimax, the minimax value which is the best
achievable utility against an optimal adversary.
o 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.
o 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.
o 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.
Adversarial search is a game-playing technique where the agents are surrounded by a
competitive environment. A conflicting goal is given to the agents (multiagent). These agents
compete with one another and try to defeat one another in order to win the game. Such
conflicting goals give rise to the adversarial search. Here, game-playing means discussing
those games where human intelligence and logic factor is used, excluding other factors such
as luck factor. Tic-tac-toe, chess, checkers, etc., are such type of games where no luck factor
works, only mind works.
Mathematically, this search is based on the concept of ‘Game Theory.’ According to game
theory, a game is played between two players. To complete the game, one has to win the game
and the other looses automatically.’

Techniques required to get the best optimal solution

There is always a need to choose those algorithms which provide the best optimal solution in
a limited time. So, we use the following techniques which could fulfill our requirements:
• Pruning: A technique which allows ignoring the unwanted portions of a search tree
which make no difference in its final result.
• Heuristic Evaluation Function: It allows to approximate the cost value at each level
of the search tree, before reaching the goal node.
Elements of Game Playing search
To play a game, we use a game tree to know all the possible choices and to pick the best one
out. There are following elements of a game-playing:
• S0: It is the initial state from where a game begins.
• PLAYER (s): It defines which player is having the current turn to make a move in the
state.
• ACTIONS (s): It defines the set of legal moves to be used in a state.
• RESULT (s, a): It is a transition model which defines the result of a move.
• TERMINAL-TEST (s): It defines that the game has ended and returns true.
• UTILITY (s,p): It defines the final value with which the game has ended. This function
is also known as Objective function or Payoff function. The price which the winner
will get i.e.
• (-1): If the PLAYER loses.
• (+1): If the PLAYER wins.
 • (0): If there is a draw between the PLAYERS.
For example, in chess, tic-tac-toe, we have two or three possible outcomes. Either to win, to
lose, or to draw the match with values +1,-1 or 0.
Let’s understand the working of the elements with the help of a game tree designed for tic-tac-
toe. Here, the node represents the game state and edges represent the moves taken by the
players.

A game-tree for tic-tac-toe

• INITIAL STATE (S0): The top node in the game-tree represents the initial state in the
tree and shows all the possible choice to pick out one.
• PLAYER (s): There are two players, MAX and MIN. MAX begins the game by
picking one best move and place X in the empty square box.
• ACTIONS (s): Both the players can make moves in the empty boxes chance by chance.
• RESULT (s, a): The moves made by MIN and MAX will decide the outcome of the
game.
• TERMINAL-TEST(s): When all the empty boxes will be filled, it will be the
terminating state of the game.
 • UTILITY: At the end, we will get to know who wins: MAX or MIN, and accordingly,
the price will be given to them.

Types of Games in AI:

Deterministic Chance Moves

Perfect information Chess, Checkers, go, Othello Backgammon, monopoly

Imperfect information Battleships, blind, tic-tac-toe Bridge, poker, scrabble, nuclear war

o 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.
o 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.
o 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.
o 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.

Types of algorithms in Adversarial search

In a normal search, we follow a sequence of actions to reach the goal or to finish the game
optimally. But in an adversarial search, the result depends on the players which will decide
the result of the game. It is also obvious that the solution for the goal state will be an optimal
solution because the player will try to win the game with the shortest path and under limited
time.
There are following types of adversarial search:
• Minmax Algorithm
• Alpha-beta Pruning.

Minimax
In artificial intelligence, minimax is a decision-making strategy under game theory, which is
used to minimize the losing chances in a game and to maximize the winning chances. This
strategy is also known as ‘Minmax,’ ’MM,’ or ‘Saddle point.’ Basically, it is a two-player
game strategy where if one wins, the other loose the game. This strategy simulates those games
that we play in our day-to-day life. Like, if two persons are playing chess, the result will be in
favor of one player and will unfavor the other one. The person who will make his best try,efforts
as well as cleverness, will surely win.
We can easily understand this strategy via game tree– where the nodes represent the states of
the game and edges represent the moves made by the players in the game. Players will be two
namely:
• MIN: Decrease the chances of MAX to win the game.
• MAX: Increases his chances of winning the game.
They both play the game alternatively, i.e., turn by turn and following the above strategy, i.e.,
if one wins, the other will definitely lose it. Both players look at one another as competitors
and will try to defeat one-another, giving their best.
In minimax strategy, the result of the game or the utility value is generated by a heuristic
function by propagating from the initial node to the root node. It follows the backtracking
technique and backtracks to find the best choice. MAX will choose that path which will
increase its utility value and MIN will choose the opposite path which could help it to minimize
MAX’s utility value.
MINIMAX Algorithm
MINIMAX algorithm is a backtracking algorithm where it backtracks to pick the best move
out of several choices. MINIMAX strategy follows the DFS (Depth-first search) concept.
Here, we have two players MIN and MAX, and the game is played alternatively between
them, i.e., when MAX made a move, then the next turn is of MIN. It means the move made by
MAX is fixed and, he cannot change it. The same concept is followed in DFS strategy, i.e., we
follow the same path and cannot change in the middle. That’s why in MINIMAX algorithm,
instead of BFS, we follow DFS.
• Keep on generating the game tree/ search tree till a limit d.
• Compute the move using a heuristic function.
• Propagate the values from the leaf node till the current position following the minimax
strategy.
• Make the best move from the choices.

For example, in the above figure, the two players MAX and MIN are there. MAX starts the
game by choosing one path and propagating all the nodes of that path. Now, MAX will
backtrack to the initial node and choose the best path where his utility value will be the
maximum. After this, its MIN chance. MIN will also propagate through a path and again will
backtrack, but MIN will choose the path which could minimize MAX winning chances or the
utility value.
So, if the level is minimizing, the node will accept the minimum value from the successor
nodes. If the level is maximizing, the node will accept the maximum value from the
successor.
Alpha-beta pruning:

Alpha-beta pruning is an advance version of MINIMAX algorithm. The drawback of minimax

strategy is that it explores each node in the tree deeply to provide the best path among all the
paths. This increases its time complexity. But as we know, the performance measure is the first
consideration for any optimal algorithm. Therefore, alpha-beta pruning reduces this drawback
of minimax strategy by less exploring the nodes of the search tree.
The method used in alpha-beta pruning is that it cutoff the search by exploring less number
of nodes. It makes the same moves as a minimax algorithm does, but it prunes the unwanted
branches using the pruning technique (discussed in adversarial search). Alpha-beta pruning
works on two threshold values, i.e., alpha and beta
• It is the best highest value, a MAX player can have. It is the lower bound, which
represents negative infinity value.
• It is the best lowest value, a MIN player can have. It is the upper bound which
represents positive infinity.
So, each MAX node has
value, which never decreases, and each MIN node has value, which never increases.
Note: Alpha-beta pruning technique can be applied to trees of any depth, and it is possible to
prune the entire subtrees easily.

Solution