Part II-Problems, Problem Spaces and Search

Part II-Problems, Problem
Spaces and Search
Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Dept of CSE, School of Engineering, Sir Padampat Singhania University
Contents
• Defining the problem as a State Space Search

• Production Systems
• Control Strategies
• Breadth First Search
• Depth First Search
• Heuristic Search
• Problem Characteristics
• Production system characteristics
• Issues in the design of search programs

To build a system to solve a problem
1. Define the problem precisely

2. Analyze the problem
3. Isolate and represent the task knowledge
that is necessary to solve the problem
4. Choose the best problem-solving techniques
and apply it to the particular problem.

Defining the problem as State Space Search
• The state space representation forms the basis of most of the

AI methods.
• Its structure corresponds to the structure of problem solving in
two important ways:
– It allows for a formal definition of a problem as the need to
convert some given situation into some desired situation using a
set of permissible operations.--- state space.
– It permits us to define the process of solving a particular problem
as a combination of known techniques (each represented as a
rule defining a single step in the space-moves or operators or
action) and search, the general technique of exploring the space
to try to find some path from current state to a goal state.
Search is a very important process in the solution of hard problems

for which no more direct techniques are available.

Example: Playing Chess
• To build a program that could “play chess”, we could first

have to specify the starting position of the chess
board, the rules that define the legal moves, and the
board positions that represent a win for one side or the
other.
• In addition, we must make explicit the previously implicit
goal of not only playing the legal game of chess but also
winning the game, if possible,

Playing chess – non AI solution
Without using state space
• The starting position can be described as an 8 by 8 array where each

position contains a symbol for appropriate piece.
• We can define as our goal the check mate position.
• The legal moves provide the way of getting from initial state to a goal
state.
• They can be described easily as a set of rules consisting of two parts:
– A left side that serves as a pattern to be matched against the current board
position.
– And a right side that describes the change to be made to reflect the move
• However, this approach leads to large number of rules 10120 board
positions !!
• Using so many rules poses problems such as:
– No person could ever supply a complete set of such rules.
– No program could easily handle all those rules. Just storing so many rules poses
serious difficulties.

Defining chess problem as State Space search
• We need to write the rules describing the legal

moves in as general a way as possible.
• For example:
– White pawn at Square( file e, rank 2) AND Square( File e,
rank 3) is empty AND Square(file e, rank 4) is empty, then
move the pawn from Square( file e, rank 2) to Square( file
e, rank 4).
• In general, the more succinctly we can describe the
rules we need, the less work we will have to do to
provide them and more efficient will be the
program.

Water Jug Problem

Water Jug Problem
• The state space for this problem can be described as

the set of ordered pairs of integers (x, y) such that x =
0, 1,2, 3 or 4 and y = 0,1,2 or 3; x represents the
number of gallons of water in the 4-gallon jug and y
represents the quantity of water in 3-gallon jug
• The start state is (0,0)
• The goal state is (2,n)

Production rules for Water Jug Problem
• The operators to be used to solve the

problem can be described as follows:
Sl No Current state Next State Descritpion

1 (x,y) if x < 4 (4,y) Fill the 4 gallon jug
2 (x,y) if y <3 (x,3) Fill the 3 gallon jug
3 (x,y) if x > 0 (x-d, y) Pour some water out of the 4

gallon jug
4 (x,y) if y > 0 (x, y-d) Pour some water out of the 3-

gallon jug
5 (x,y) if x>0 (0, y) Empty the 4 gallon jug
6 (x,y) if y >0 (x,0) Empty the 3 gallon jug on the

ground
7 (x,y) if x+y >= 4 and y >0 (4, y-(4-x)) Pour water from the 3 –
gallon jug into the 4 –gallon
jug until the 4-gallon jug is full

Production rules for Water Jug Problem
8 (x, y) if x+y >= 3 and x>0 (x-(3-y), 3) Pour water from the 4-gallon jug
into the 3-gallon jug until the 3-
gallon jug is full
9 (x, y) if x+y <=4 and y>0 (x+y, 0) Pour all the water from the 3-
gallon jug into the 4-gallon jug
10 (x, y) if x+y <= 3 and x>0 (0, x+y) Pour all the water from the 4-
gallon jug into the 3-gallon jug
11 (0,2) (2,0) Pour the 2 gallons from 3-gallon

jug into the 4-gallon jug
12 (2,y) (0,y) Empty the 2 gallons in the 4-

gallon jug on the ground

To solve the water jug problem
• Required a control structure that

loops through a simple cycle in
which some rule whose left side
matches the current state is Gallons in the Gallons in the Rule applied
chosen, the appropriate change to 4-gallon jug 3-gallon jug
the state is made as described in 0 0 2
the corresponding right side, and
the resulting state is checked to 0 3 9
see if it corresponds to goal state.
3 0 2
• One solution to the water jug
problem 3 3 7
• Shortest such sequence will have
a impact on the choice of 4 2 5 or 12
appropriate mechanism to guide
the search for solution. 0 2 9 0r 11
2 0
Formal Description of the problem
Defining a problem formally
1. Define a state space that contains all the possible

configurations of the relevant objects.
2. Specify one or more states within that space that describe
possible situations from which the problem solving process
may start ( initial state)
3. Specify one or more states that would be acceptable as
solutions to the problem. ( goal states)
4. Specify a set of rules that describe the actions ( operations)
available.
S, S0, G, A:S->S

Production Systems
A production system consists of:

• A set of rules, each consisting of a left side that
determines the applicability of the rule and a right side that
describes the operation to be performed if that rule is
applied. Pattern: Operation
• One or more knowledge/databases that contain whatever
information is appropriate for the particular task. Some parts
of the database may be permanent, while other parts of it
may pertain only to the solution of the current problem.
• A control strategy that specifies the order in which the
rules will be compared to the database and a way of
resolving the conflicts that arise when several rules match at
once.
• A rule applier

Production Systems
In order to solve a problem we must do

1. Reduce it to state space
2. Search for a path that reaches to G from S0
The process of solving the problem can be modeled as a

production system
Gallons in Gallons in Rule applied
the 4-gallon the 3-gallon
jug jug
0 0 2
0 3 9
3 0 2
3 3 7
4 2 5 or 12
0 2 9 0r 11
Next search/control strategy 2 0
Few more classical problems!

Pegs and Disks problem
We have 3 pegs and 3 disks.
Operators: one may move the topmost disk on any needle to the
topmost position to any other needle
In the goal state all the pegs are in the needle B as shown in the
figure below..

queens problem
The problem is to place 8 queens on a chessboard so that no two queens
are in the same row, column or diagonal

8 puzzle
In the 8-puzzle problem we have a 3×3 square board and 8 numbered
tiles. The board has one blank position. Bocks can be slid to adjacent
blank positions. We can alternatively and equivalently look upon this as
the movement of the blank position up, down, left or right. The objective
of this puzzle is to move the tiles starting from an initial position and
arrive at a given goal configuration.

Control Strategies
• How to decide which rule to apply next during the

process of searching for a solution to a problem?
• The two requirements of good control strategy are
that
– it should cause motion.
– It should be systematic

Searching in the state space.
Do until a solution is found or the state space is exhausted.
1. Check the current state

2. Execute allowable actions to find the successor states.
3. Pick one of the new states.
4. Check if the new state is a solution state
If it is not, the new state becomes the current state and the process
is repeated

Searching in the state space.

Evaluating Search strategies
1. Completeness: Is the strategy guaranteed to find a solution if one exists?

2. Optimality: Does the solution have low cost or the minimal cost?
3. What is the search cost associated with the time and memory required to
find a solution?
a. Time complexity: Time taken (number of nodes expanded) (worst or
average case) to find a solution.
b. Space complexity: Space used by the algorithm measured in terms of
the maximum size of fringe

Breadth First Search

Graphs and trees for state space

BFS illustrated

BFS illustrated

BFS Tree for Water Jug problem
Gallons in Gallons in Rule applied Exercise: Tag every arc

jug jug
for the rule applied.
0 0 2
0 3 9
3 0 2
3 3 7
4 2 5 or 12
0 2 9 0r 11 (0,0)
2 0
(4,0) (0,3)
(0,0) (1,3) (4,3) (0,0) (3,0)

(4,3)

Algorithm: Depth First Search

DFS illustrated

DFS illustrated

DFS illustrated

DFS Tree for Water Jug problem
Gallons in Gallons in Rule applied Exercise: Tag every arc

jug jug
for the rule applied.
0 0 2
0 3 9
3 0 2
3 3 7
4 2 5 or 12
0 2 9 0r 11 (0,0)
2 0
(4,0)
(4,3)

Backtracking
• In this search, we pursue a single branch of the tree until it

yields a solution or until a decision to terminate the path is
made.
• It makes sense to terminate a path if it reaches dead-end,
produces a previous state. In such a state backtracking occurs
• Chronological Backtracking: Order in which steps are undone
depends only on the temporal sequence in which steps were
initially made.
• Specifically most recent step is always the first to be undone.
• This is also simple backtracking.

Advantages of Depth-First Search
• DFS requires less memory since only the nodes on the

current path are stored.
• By chance, DFS may find a solution without examining
much of the search space at all.

Advantages of BFS
• BFS will not get trapped exploring a blind alley.

• If there is a solution, BFS is guaranteed to find it.
• If there are multiple solutions, then a minimal solution will
be found.

Traveling Salesman Problem
• A simple motion causing and systematic control structure

could solve this problem.
• Simply explore all possible paths in the tree and return
the shortest path.
• If there are N cities, then number of different paths
among them is 1.2….(N-1) or (N-1)!
• The time to examine single path is proportional to N
• So the total time required to perform this search is
proportional to N!
• For 10 cities, 10! = 3,628,800
• This phenomenon is called Combinatorial explosion.

Branch and Bound
• Begin generating complete paths, keeping track of the shortest

path found so far.
• Give up exploring any path as soon as its partial length
becomes greater than the shortest path found so far.
• Using this algorithm, we are guaranteed to find the shortest
path.
• It still requires exponential time.
• The time it saves depends on the order in which paths are
explored.

Heuristic Search
• A Heuristic is a technique that improves the efficiency of a

search process, possibly by sacrificing claims of
completeness.
• Heuristics are like tour guides
• They are good to the extent that they point in generally
interesting directions;
• They are bad to the extent that they may miss points of interest
to particular individuals.
• On the average they improve the quality of the paths that are
explored.
• Using Heuristics, we can hope to get good (though possibly
non-optimal ) solutions to hard problems such as a TSP in non
exponential time.
• There are good general purpose heuristics that are useful in a
wide variety of problem domains.
• Special purpose heuristics exploit domain specific knowledge

Nearest Neighbor Heuristic
• It works by selecting locally superior alternative at

each step.
• Applying to TSP:
1. Arbitrarily select a starting city
2. To select the next city, look at all cities not yet visited and
select the one closest to the current city. Go to next step.
3. Repeat step 2 until all cities have been visited.
– This procedure executes in time proportional to N2
– It is possible to prove an upper bound on the error it
incurs. This provides reassurance that one is not
paying too high a price in accuracy for speed.

Heuristic Function
• This is a function that maps from problem state

descriptions to measures of desirability, usually
represented as numbers.
– Which aspects of the problem state are considered,
– how those aspects are evaluated, and
– the weights given to individual aspects are chosen in such a way
that
• the value of the heuristic function at a given node in the
search process gives as good an estimate as possible of
whether that node is on the desired path to a solution.
• Well designed heuristic functions can play an important
part in efficiently guiding a search process toward a
solution.

Example Simple Heuristic functions
• Chess : The material advantage of our

side over opponent.
• TSP: the sum of distances so far
• Tic-Tac-Toe: 1 for each row in which we
could win and in we already have one
piece plus 2 for each such row in we have
two pieces

All are varieties of Heuristic Search:
1. Generate and test

2. Hill Climbing
3. Best First Search
4. Problem Reduction
5. Constraint Satisfaction
6. Means-ends analysis

Problem Characteristics
• In order to choose the most appropriate method for a particular

problem, it is necessary to analyze the problem along several key
dimensions:
– Is the problem decomposable into a set of independent smaller or
easier sub problems?
– Can solution steps be ignored or at least undone if they prove
unwise?
– Is the problem’s universe predictable?
– Is a good solution to the problem obvious without comparison to all
other possible solutions?-(Absolute or relative)
– 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?

Is the problem Decomposable?
• Whether the problem can be decomposed

into smaller problems?
• Using the technique of problem
decomposition, we can often solve very
large problems easily.

Blocks World Problem
Start: ON(C,A)
• Following operators A
are available: C B
A B C
• CLEAR(x) [ block x
Goal:
has nothing on it]-> ON(B,C) and
ON(A,B)
ON(x, Table) ON(B,C) and ON(A,B)
• CLEAR(x) and
CLEAR(y) -> ON(B,C) ON(A,B)
ON(x,y) [ put x on y]
CLEAR(A) ON(A,B)
ON(B,C)
CLEAR(A) ON(A,B)

Can Solution Steps be ignored or undone?
• Suppose we are trying to prove a math theorem. We can prove a

lemma. If we find the lemma is not of any help, we can still continue.
• 8-puzzle problem
• Chess: A move cannot be taken back.
• Important classes of problems:
– Ignorable ( theorem proving)
– Recoverable ( 8-puzzle)
– Irrecoverable ( Chess)
• The recoverability of a problem plays an important role in
determining the complexity of the control structure necessary for the
problem’s solution.
– Ignorable problems can be solved using a simple control structure that
never backtracks
– Recoverable problems can be solved by a slightly more complicated
control strategy that does sometimes make mistakes
– Irrecoverable problems will need to be solved by systems that
expends a great deal of effort making each decision since decision must
be final. We will require planning.

Is the universe Predictable?
• Certain Outcome ( ex: 8-puzzle)

• Uncertain Outcome ( ex: Bridge, controlling a
robot arm)
• For solving certain outcome problems, open
loop approach ( without feedback) will work fine.
• For uncertain-outcome problems, planning can
at best generate a sequence of operators that
has a good probability of leading to a solution.
We need to allow for a process of plan revision
to take place.

Is a good solution absolute or relative?
• Any path problem

• Best path problem
• Any path problems can often be solved in

a reasonable amount of time by using
heuristics that suggest good paths to
explore.
• Best path problems are computationally
harder.
Is the solution a state or a path?
• Examples:
– Finding a consistent interpretation for the sentence
“The bank president ate a dish of pasta salad with the
fork”. We need to find the interpretation but not the
record of the processing.
– Water jug : Here it is not sufficient to report that we
have solved , but the path that we found to the state
(2,0). Thus the a statement of a solution to this
problem must be a sequence of operations ( Plan)
that produces the final state.

What is the role of knowledge?
• Two examples:
– Chess: Knowledge is required to constrain the search for a
solution
– Newspaper story understanding: Lot of knowledge is required
even to be able to recognize a solution.
• Consider a problem of scanning daily newspapers to
decide which are supporting the democrats and which are
supporting the republicans in some election. We need lots
of knowledge to answer such questions as:
– The names of the candidates in each party
– The facts that if the major thing you want to see done is have
taxes lowered, you are probably supporting the republicans
– The fact that if the major thing you want to see done is improved
education for minority students, you are probably supporting the
democrats.
– etc

Does the task require Interaction with a person?
• The programs require intermediate

interaction with people for additional inputs
and to provided reassurance to the user.
• There are two types of programs:
– Solitary
– Conversational:
• Decision on using one of these
approaches will be important in the choice
of problem solving method.

Problem Classification
• There are several broad classes into

which the problems fall. These classes
can each be associated with generic
control strategy that is appropriate for
solving the problems:
– Classification : ex: medical diagnostics,
diagnosis of faults in mechanical devices
– Propose and Refine: ex: design and planning

Production System Characteristics
1. Can production systems, like problems, be described

by a set of characteristics that shed some light on how
they can easily be implemented?
2. If so, what relationships are there between problem
types and the types of production systems best suited
to solving the problems?
• Classes of Production systems:
– Monotonic Production System: the application of a rule
never prevents the later application of another rule that could
also have been applied at the time the first rule was selected.
– Non-Monotonic Production system
– Partially commutative Production system: property that if
application of a particular sequence of rules transforms state x
to state y, then permutation of those rules allowable, also
transforms state x into state y.
– Commutative Production system

Monotonic Production Systems
• Production system in which the application

of a rule never prevents the later
application of another rule that could also
have been applied at the time the first rule
was applied.
• i.e., rules are independent.

Commutative Production system
• A partially Commutative production system

has a property that if the application of a
particular sequence of rules transform
state x into state y, then any permutation
of those rules that is allowable, also
transforms state x into state y.
• A Commutative production system is a
production system that is both monotonic
and partially commutative.

Partially Commutative, Monotonic
• These production systems are useful for solving

ignorable problems.
• Example: Theorem Proving
• They can be implemented without the ability to backtrack
to previous states when it is discovered that an incorrect
path has been followed.
• This often results in a considerable increase in
efficiency, particularly because since the database will
never have to be restored, It is not necessary to keep
track of where in the search process every change was
made.
• They are good for problems where things do not change;
new things get created.

Non Monotonic, Partially Commutative
• Useful for problems in which changes occur but

can be reversed and in which order of
operations is not critical.
• Example: Robot Navigation, 8-puzzle, blocks
world
• Suppose the robot has the following ops: go
North (N), go East (E), go South (S), go West
(W). To reach its goal, it does not matter
whether the robot executes the N-N-E or N-E-N.

Not partially Commutative
• Problems in which irreversible change occurs

• Example: chemical synthesis
• The ops can be :Add chemical x to the pot, Change the
temperature to t degrees.
• These ops may cause irreversible changes to the potion being
brewed.
• The order in which they are performed can be very important in
determining the final output.
• (X+y) +z is not the same as (z+y) +x
• Non partially commutative production systems are less likely to
produce the same node many times in search process.
• When dealing with ones that describe irreversible processes, it
is partially important to make correct decisions the first time,
although if the universe is predictable, planning can be used to
make that less important.

Four Categories of Production System
Monotonic Non Monotonic

(new thing) (change in
state)
Partially Theorem Robot
Commutative proving Navigation
(ignorable) (recoverable)
Not Partially Chemical Bridge
Commutative Synthesis (irrecoverable)
(irrecoverable)
Issues in the design of search programs
• The direction in which to conduct the

search ( forward versus backward
reasoning).
• How to select applicable rules ( Matching)
• How to represent each node of the search
process ( knowledge representation
problem)

Summary
Four steps for designing a program to solve

a problem:
1.Define the problem precisely
2.Analyse the problem
3.Identify and represent the knowledge required
by the task
4.Choose one or more techniques for problem
solving and apply those techniques to the
problem.


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Part II-Problems, Problem

Spaces and Search

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

• Defining the problem as a State Space Search

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

1. Define the problem precisely

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

• The state space representation forms the basis of most of the

Search is a very important process in the solution of hard problems

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

• To build a program that could “play chess”, we could first

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Without using state space

• The starting position can be described as an 8 by 8 array where each

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

• We need to write the rules describing the legal

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

• The state space for this problem can be described as

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

• The operators to be used to solve the

Sl No Current state Next State Descritpion

2 (x,y) if y <3 (x,3) Fill the 3 gallon jug

3 (x,y) if x > 0 (x-d, y) Pour some water out of the 4

4 (x,y) if y > 0 (x, y-d) Pour some water out of the 3-

5 (x,y) if x>0 (0, y) Empty the 4 gallon jug

6 (x,y) if y >0 (x,0) Empty the 3 gallon jug on the

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

11 (0,2) (2,0) Pour the 2 gallons from 3-gallon

12 (2,y) (0,y) Empty the 2 gallons in the 4-

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

• Required a control structure that

Defining a problem formally

1. Define a state space that contains all the possible

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

A production system consists of:

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

In order to solve a problem we must do

The process of solving the problem can be modeled as a

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

• How to decide which rule to apply next during the

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Do until a solution is found or the state space is exhausted.

1. Check the current state

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

1. Completeness: Is the strategy guaranteed to find a solution if one exists?

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Gallons in Gallons in Rule applied Exercise: Tag every arc

(0,0) (1,3) (4,3) (0,0) (3,0)

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor

Ajay Prasad, Assistant Professor