521495A: Artificial Intelligence

Search

Lectured by
Abdenour Hadid
Associate Professor, CMVS, University of Oulu

Slides adopted from http://ai.berkeley.edu

 The goal of the course is to learn how to design rational agents

Environment
Sensors
Percepts
Agent

Actuators
Actions

An agent is an entity that perceives the environments and acts to maximize its (expected)
utility
 The goal of the course is to learn how to design rational agents

Environment
Sensors
Percepts
Agent

Actuators
Actions

An agent is an entity that perceives the environments and acts to maximize its (expected)
utility
 The goal of the course is to learn how to design rational agents

Environment
Sensors
Percepts
Agent

Actuators
Actions

An agent is an entity that perceives the environments and acts to maximize its (expected)
utility
 The goal of the course is to learn how to design rational agents

Environment
Sensors
Percepts
Agent

Actuators
Actions

An agent is an entity that perceives the environments and acts to maximize its (expected)
utility
 Search
Agent function can be
presented by tabulating all
combinations
of percepts and related
actions?

For most of the cases,

this table would be huge or
perhaps infinite and hence
impractical.
 Search
For any given class of
environments and tasks,
we seek the
agent (or class of agents)
with the best performance

Computational limitations
make
perfect rationality
unachievable
For any given class of environments and tasks, we seek the
agent with the best performance

Search
 # Environment types
Observable: Determines if the agents sensors give access to the complete state of the environment at each point in
time. In such case the environment is fully observable. Fully observable environments are convenient, since the agent
does not need memory to keep track of the changes in environment. Unfortunately, such environments are rare in
practice. In other cases, environments are called partially observable or nonbservable.

Deterministic: If the next state of the environment is completely determined by the current state and the action
performed by the agent, then it is called deterministic; otherwise it is stochastic. Most real world environments are
unfortunately stochastic.

Static: A static environment is not changing while the agent is deliberating (e.g. many board games). If this is not true
(e.g. driving a car), the environment is called dynamic.

Discrete: Discrete/continuous distinction applies to the way time is handled and to the percepts and actions of the
agent. For instance, chess game has a finite number of distinct states, percepts and actions. Hence it is discrete
environment. On the other hand, taxi driving is continuous-state and continuos-time problem.

Single-agent: This feature determines if the agent is acting alone in the environment, or if there are multiple agents
(called as multi-agent environment). E.g. crossword puzzle is a single agent environment.

The environment type largely determines the agent design

 # Environment types
Observable: Determines if the agents sensors give access to the complete state of the environment at each point in
time. In such case the environment is fully observable. Fully observable environments are convenient, since the agent
does not need memory to keep track of the changes in environment. Unfortunately, such environments are rare in
practice. In other cases, environments are called partially observable or nonbservable.
 # Environment types

Deterministic: If the next state of the environment is completely determined by the current state and the action
performed by the agent, then it is called deterministic; otherwise it is stochastic. Most real world environments are
unfortunately stochastic.
 # Environment types

Static: A static environment is not changing while the agent is deliberating (e.g. many board games). If this is not true
(e.g. driving a car), the environment is called dynamic.

Discrete: Discrete/continuous distinction applies to the way time is handled and to the percepts and actions of the
agent. For instance, chess game has a finite number of distinct states, percepts and actions. Hence it is discrete
environment. On the other hand, taxi driving is continuous-state and continuos-time problem.
 # Environment types

Single-agent: This feature determines if the agent is acting alone in the environment, or if there are multiple agents
(called as multi-agent environment). E.g. crossword puzzle is a single agent environment.

The environment type largely determines the agent design

 Reflex Agents
Reflex agent is the most simple agent design.

 Choose action based on current

percept (and maybe memory)

 May have memory or a model of

the world’s current state

 Do not consider the future

consequences of their actions

 Consider how the world IS

 Can a reflex agent be rational?

 Reflex Agents
Reflex agent is the most simple agent design.

 Choose action based on current

percept (and maybe memory)

 May have memory or a model of

the world’s current state

 Do not consider the future

consequences of their actions

 Consider how the world IS

 Can a reflex agent be rational?

Video of Demo Reflex Optimal
Video of Demo Reflex Odd
Agents that Plan
 Agents that Plan
 Ask “what if”

 Decisions based on
(hypothesized) consequences
of actions

 Must have a model of how

the world evolves in response
to actions

 Must formulate a goal (test)

 Consider how the world

WOULD BE
Agents that Plan
 Agents that learns

In addition to planning:

An agent can adapt its

behavior during the
operation based on the
external performance
standard.

The agent is observing

how well it is doing and
adapts its decision
making process.
Agents that learn?
Problem Solving Agents via Search
 Search Problems
 A search problem consists of:

 A state space

“N”, 1.0
 A successor function
(with actions, costs)

“E”, 1.0
 A start state and a goal test

 A solution is a sequence of actions (a plan) which

transforms the start state to a goal state
Search Problems Are Models
Example: Traveling in Romania
 State space:
 Cities
 Successor function:
 Roads: Go to adjacent city
 Cost = distance
 Start state:
 Arad
 Goal test:
 Is state == Bucharest?

 Solution?
Sequence of cities, e.g., Arad, Sibiu, Fagaras,
Bucharest
 What’s in a State Space?
The world state includes every last detail of the environment

A search state keeps only the details needed for planning (abstraction)

 Problem: Pathing
 States: (x,y) location
 Actions: NSEW
 Successor: update location
only
 Goal test: is (x,y)=END
 What’s in a State Space?
The world state includes every last detail of the environment

A search state keeps only the details needed for planning (abstraction)

 Problem: Eat-All-Dots
 States: {(x,y), dot booleans}
 Actions: NSEW
 Successor: update location
and possibly a dot boolean
 Goal test: dots all false
 State Space Sizes?

 World state:
 Agent positions: 120
 Food count: 30
 Ghost positions: 12
 Agent facing: NSEW

 How many
 World states?
120x(230)x(122)x4
 States for pathing?
120
 States for eat-all-dots?
120x(230)
 Quiz: Safe Passage

 Problem: eat all dots while keeping the ghosts perma-scared

 What does the state space have to specify?
 (agent position, dot booleans, power pellet booleans, remaining scared time)
 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
Tree Search
Search Example: Romania
 General Tree Search
The simplest approach to problem solving using search
algorithms is a tree search.
Basic idea:
offline, simulated exploration of state space
by generating successors of already-explored states
(a.k.a. expanding states)
 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
 General Tree Search
The simplest approach to problem solving using search algorithms is a tree search.

 Important ideas:
 Fringe
 Expansion
 Exploration strategy

 Main question: which fringe nodes to explore?  Strategy!!

 Search Strategies

The efficiency of the search algorithm is dictated by the strategy.

A strategy is defined by picking the order of node expansion.

Strategies are evaluated along the following dimensions:

Completeness—does it always find a solution if one exists?

Time complexity—number of nodes generated/expanded
Space complexity—maximum number of nodes in memory
Optimality—does it always find a least-cost solution?
 Uninformed search strategies

Uninformed (blind) strategies use only the information

available in the problem definition.

Uninformed Search Methods:

 Depth-First Search
 Breadth-First Search
 Uniform-Cost Search
Uninformed (blind) vs. Informed Search
Uninformed (blind) vs. Informed Search
 General Tree Search
The simplest approach to problem solving using search
algorithms is a tree search.
Basic idea:
offline, simulated exploration of state space
by generating successors of already-explored states
(a.k.a. expanding states)
 General Tree Search
a G
b c
e
d f
S h
p q r

Fringe 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
 Uninformed search strategies

b c1 b b
… … …
c2
c3

Uniform-Cost Search Breadth-First Search Depth-First Search

 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:
m tiers
 b is the branching factor
 m is the maximum depth
 solutions at various depths
bm nodes
 Number of nodes in entire tree
 1 + b + b2 + …. bm = O(bm)
Depth-First Search
 Depth-First Search
Strategy: expand a deepest a G
node first b c

Implementation: e
d f
Fringe is a LIFO stack S h
p q r
i.e., put successors at front

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
 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

 How much space does the fringe take? m tiers

 Only has siblings on path to root, so O(bm)
 Linear space
bm nodes
 Is it complete?
 No: fails in infinite-depth spaces!!
 Yes, in finite space

 Is it optimal? Note that most cases (like Romania example) have infinite
 No, it finds the “leftmost” solution, depth (in Romania example you can travel a circle).
regardless of depth or cost
Breadth-First Search
 Breadth-First Search
Strategy: expand a shallowest node first a G
b c
Implementation:
e
Fringe is a FIFO queue (i.e., new d f
S h
successors go at end)
p q r

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
 Breadth-First Search (BFS) Properties
 What nodes does BFS expand?
 Processes all nodes above shallowest solution b
1 node
 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

 Keeps all nodes in memory, so O(bs)

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

 Is it optimal?
 Yes (if cost = 1 per step); not optimal in general

Space is the big problem; can easily generate nodes at 100MB/sec, so 24hrs = 8640GB.
 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!
 Cost-Sensitive Search

a GOAL
2 2
b c
3
2
1 8
2 e
3 d
f
9 8 2
START h
1 4 2

p 4 r
15
q

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.
Uniform Cost Search
 Uniform Cost Search
2 a G
Strategy: expand a cheapest node b c
1 8 (e.g. continue exploration
first (least-cost unexpanded node) 2 2
e from city that is closest to
3 d f
Fringe = queue ordered by path 9 2 Arad).
S h 8
cost, lowest first 1
1 p q r
15

S 0

d 3 e 9 p 1

b 4 c e 5 h 17 r 11 q 16
11
Cost a 6 a h 13 r 7 p q f
contours
p q f 8 q c G

q 11 c G 10 a

a
 Uniform Cost Search (UCS) Properties
 What nodes does UCS expand?
 Processes all nodes with cost less than cheapest solution!
b c1
 If that solution costs C* and arcs cost at least  , then the …
“effective depth” is roughly C*/ C*/ “tiers”
c2

 Takes time O(b ) (exponential in effective depth)
C*/
c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
 Uniform Cost Issues
 Remember: UCS explores increasing cost c1
…
contours c2
c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!

 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…
Search Gone Wrong?