Artificial Intelligence

Chapter 3
Structures and Strategies For State
Space Search
Contents
• Introduction
• Structures for State Space search
•Graph Theory
•The Finite State Machine
•State representation of problems
• Strategies for Space State Search
•Data driven – Goal driven search
•Depth Search – Breadth search
•Depth First search with Iterative
Deepening
• Using the State Space to represent
Reasoning with the propositional and
predicate calculus
•And /Or Graphs
•Examples
Introduction
The importance of the problem space

 The choice of a problem space makes a big

difference
in fact, finding a good abstraction is half of
the problem
 Intelligence is needed to figure out what
problem space to use
 the human problem solver is conducting a
search in the space of problem spaces
Introduction
 The theory of state space search is a
primary tool for representing a problem as a
state space graph , using graph theory to
analyze the structure and complexity of the
problem and the search procedure we
employ to solve it
The city of Königsberg
 Swiss Leonhard Euler 18th cen
 Problem: if there is a walk around the city that
crosses each bridge exactly once?
Representations
Euler’s invented Graph of the Königsberg
bridge system- Euler Path
rb : river bank
I : island
b : bridge

Graph theory
Nodes rb - i
Linkes arcs - b
EULER noted WALK WAS IMPOSSIBLE UNLESS A GRAPH HAS
EXACTLY ZERO OR TWO NODES OF ODD DEGREES
Degree no of arcs joining a node
Representing Königsberg bridge
system- using predicate calculus

 Predicate calculus: connect(X, Y, Z)

connect(i1, i2, b1) connect(i2, i1, b1)
connect(rb1, i1, b2)connect(i1, rb1, b2)
connect(rb1, i1, b3)connect(i1, rb1, b3)
connect(rb1, i2, b4)connect(i2, rb1, b4)
connect(rb2, i1, b5)connect(i1, rb2, b5)
connect(rb2, i1, b6)connect(i1, rb2, b6)
connect(rb2, i2, b7)connect(i2, rb2, b7)

Connect :tow lands connected by a particular bridge

Graph Theory

 A graph consists of a set of finite nodes N1,N2… and a

set of arcs connecting the nodes
 Arcs are orded pairs of nodes ie arc(N3,N4)… .
 If a directed arc connects Nj and Nk,
Nj is called the parent, and Nk is called the child. If Nj is
also connected to Ni, Nk and Nj are siblings.
 A rooted tree has a unique node which has no parents
called the root. Each node in a rooted tree has a unique
parent.
 The edge in the rooted tree are directed away from the
root
 The path in a rooted tree is of length n-1 for a
sequence of nodes (N1,N2,…,Nn.)
)Graph Theory (cont’d
 On the path of the rooted tree a node is called an ancestor
of all node after it and a descendant of all nodes before it
 path that contains any node more than once is said to
contain a cycle or loop.
 A tree is a graph in which there is a unique path between
every pair of nodes.
 Two nodes are said to be connected if a path exists that
includes them both.
 Tip or Leaf node is the node that has no children
Strucures for State Space Search
A labeled directed graph
Family relationships in a
rooted tree
a is a is ancestor of g, h
Root and i

b is
parent (b , c , d )
of( e f) are
siblings

(e f g h I j) Leaves or
(g, h , i) children
b,e) are( tips
of c
connected
Finite State Machine
 Finite-state machines can solve a large number of problems, among which
electronic design automation, communication protocol design, parsing and other
engineering applications. In biology and artificial intelligence research, state machines or
hierarchies of state machines are sometimes used to describe neurological systems and
in linguistics — to describe the grammars of natural languages.

There are several action types:

 Entry action
 which is performed when entering the state
 Exit action
 which is performed when exiting the state
 Input action
 which is performed depending on present state and input conditions
 Transition action
 which is performed when performing a certain transition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite-state_machine 
)Finite State Machine (FSM
Flip Flop FSM

(a) The finite state graph for a flip flop and

(b) its transition matrix.
The Finite State Machine
 The Finite State Machine is finite directed
connected graph (S, I , F):
 S : Set of states – nodes
 I : Set of input values - path
 F : State transaction function
 FSM is an abstract model of computation.
 FSM Used to recognize component of a
formal language
 String Recognition
”Example for FSM for recognizing all strings contain the exact sequence “abc

Starting

Accepting
state

(a)The finite state graph

(b)The transition matrix for string recognition example
(c)This called Moore machine – FS accepting M
Finite State Accepting Machine

 There are tow FSM techniques

 Deterministic FSM: transition function for any input value to a state gives a unique
next state
 Probabilistic FSM: the transition function defines a distribution of output states for
each input to a state
The State Space
representation of Problems
 The problem space consists of:
 a state space which is a set of states representing the possible
configurations of the world- with initial state
 a set of operators (legal moves)which can change one state into
another - arcs
 The problem space can be viewed as a graph where the states
are the nodes and the arcs represent the operators.
 Pathes are searched until either the goal description is satisfied
or abandoned
 It is important to choose the best path according too the needs of
the problem
State Space and Search
State Space of Tic – Tac – Toe
•Start state : empty board
•Goal state:board with 3x’s
in row column diagonal
•States are all possible
configuration of X’s O’s
•It’s a directed graph rather
than a tree - goal can be
reached by different states
•No cycle
•Complexity = 9!
The 8-puzzle problem as state
space search
 states: possible board positions
 operators: one for sliding each square in each
of four directions,
or, better, one for moving the blank square in
each of four directions
 initial state: some given board position

 goal state: some given board position

 Note: the “solution” is not interesting here, we

need the path.
 State Space of the 8-Puzzle
• generated by “move
blank” operations
∀↑ -- up
∀→ -- left
∀↓ -- down
∀← -- left
• Cycles may occur:so
it’s a graph-multiple
parents
The travelling salesperson problem

 Find the shortest path for the salesperson to travel,

visiting each city and returning to the starting city
 The travelling salesperson problem

Complexity = (n-1)!

Search for the travelling salesperson problem. Each arc is marked

with the total weight of all paths from the start node (A) to its
endpoint.
The goal is the lowest – cost path - Goal 2 reach path not a state
Other techniques for solving TSP –
Branch & bound with complexity=(1.26)n
Greedy nearest neighbour( E, D, B, C, A), at a cost of 550,
is not the shortest path. The comparatively high cost of arc
(C, A) defeated the heuristic.
Strategies for State Space Search
 Data-driven search – forward chaining
 Begin with the given facts and a set of legal rules for
changing states
 Apply rules to facts to produce new facts
 Continue until it generate a path that satisfies the goal
condition
 Goal-driven search – backward chaining
 Begin with the goal and a set of facts and legal rules
 Search rules that generate this goal
 Determine conditions must be true to use these rules (sub
goals)
 Continue until it works back to the facts of the problem
Goal Driven search
 Goal driven is suggested if :
 A Goal is given or easily be formulated
(diagnostic systems) (theorem to be proved)
 Data are not given but acquired by solver
 Large no. of rules match the facts of the problem
Goal-driven Search
State space in which goal-directed search effectively
prunes extraneous search paths.
Data Driven search
 Data Driven is suggested if
 All or most of the data are given (PROSPECTOR
- Dipmeter)
 Large no of goals but few ways to use facts
 Difficult to form a goal

Dipmeter" is a measuring instrument to measure resonant frequency of

radio frequency circuits. It measures the amount of absorption of a high
frequency inductively coupled magnetic field by nearby object.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipmeter
Data-driven Search
State space in which data-directed search prunes irrelevant data
and their consequents and determines one of a number of
possible goals.
GDS & DDS
 Both goal-driven and data-driven search the
same state space graph
 Order and no. of states are different

 Preferred strategy is determined by:

 Complexity of the rules
 Shape of state space
 Availability of problem data
 Searching Strategies
•Blind search  traversing backtracking the search space
until the goal nodes is found (might be doing exhaustive
search).

•Techniques : Breadth First,Depth first, Interactive

Deepening search. Uniform Cost
•guarantee that solution is found

•Heuristic search  search process takes place by

traversing search space with applied rules (information).
•Techniques: Greedy Best First Search, A* Algorithm
•There is no guarantee that solution is found.
TIN 5013: Artificial Intelligence
Backtracking Search
 Search – find a path from start until reaches a
goal (quit) or dead end (backtrack)
 Backtrack – when the path is dead, try others
 Backtrack to the most recent node
on the path having unexamined siblings
 Continue until find goal or
all children been searched
(backtrack fails back)
Backtrack algorithm

Stack : From left

Stack : From left

SL: start list-if the goal is found have the solution path
NSL : nodes waiting evaluation DE: dead end CS :state to
evaluate : goal state
Backtracking search of a hypothetical
state space space.
 The Breadth-first search
 Breadth-first search
 When a state is examined, all of its children are examined after
any of its siblings (all nodes in a given level before any node in
the next level)
 Explore the search space in a level-by-level fashion
 queue structured- states are added to the right and removed
from the left FIFO
43
1 2

Order of search : A , B , C , D , E , F , G
The breadth-first search algorithm
A trace of breadth-first search
The graph at iteration 6 of breadth-first search.
States on open and closed are highlighted
 Breadth-first search of the 8-puzzle, showing
order in which states were removed from open
Depth-first search
 Depth-first search
 When a state is examined, all of its children and
their descendants are examined before any of
its siblings
 Go deeper into the search space where possible
 Stack structure descendant states are added and
removed from the left of (open) list- LIFO
 Depth-first search5
4
3

…….
The depth-first search algorithm
A trace of depth-first search
The graph at iteration 6 of depth-first search.
States on open and closed are highlighted
Depth-first search of 8-puzzle with a depth bound of 5
) Evaluation Criteria (Russel – Norvig

 completeness
 Is the problem solver guaranteed to find a solution?
 time complexity
 how long does it take to find the solution?
 space complexity
 memory required for the search
 optimality
 When the solution is found is it guranteed to be optimal?

 main factors for complexity considerations:

 branching factor b, depth d of the shallowest goal node,
maximum path length m
Comparison between breadth-
)and depth-first search (Luger
Choosing between depends on the problem properties (shortest path-branching
factor-available time length – no of needed sol’s-
 Breadth-first
 Always find the shortest path to a goal- High branching factor (high no of
children for a state-in open list-
(need memory), complexity Bn child on n level

 Depth-first
 More efficient (gets quickly into a deep search space) suitable for graphs
with many branches
 Complexity B*N (open contains just the children of a single state)
 May get lost missing shorter path or stuck with infinite long path does not
lead to goal
 Depth – first Search with Iterative
Deepening

 Use the the depth search with depth bound 1-if it

fails another search with depth bound 2
 Solution lies within a certain depth or time constraints
 Level by level search = shortest path & space usage =in n
level = B*n
 Guaranteed to find a shortest solution (BFS) & space
usage = B*n Complexity O(b*n)
 Time complexity = O(B^n) = no of nodes grows
exponentaily
All these strategies- Blind - get exponentail time
complexity for worst case
)Iterative Deepening DFS (ID-DFS

TIN 5013: Artificial Intelligence

”Blind search“
 BFS and DFS are blind in the sense that they
have no knowledge about the problem at all
other than the problem space
 Such techniques are also called brute-force
search, uninformed search, or weak methods
Using the State Space to Represent
Reasoning with propositional and
predicate Calculus
State Space Description of a Logical System
AND/OR Graphs
Further Examples and Applications
MACSYMA (integration)
Where is Fred?
The Financial Advisor
English Grammar
State Space Description of a
Logical System
 The propositional and Predicate calculus can be
used as the formal specification language for
making nodes distinguishable as well as for
mapping the nodes of a graph onto the state
space.
 Inference rules can be used to create and
describe the arcs between states.
 Problems in the predicate calculus, such as
determining whether a particular expression is a
logical consequence of a given set of
assertions, may be solved using search.
propositional calculus
 Propositions that are logical consequences of the
given set of assertions correspond to the nodes that
may be reached along a directed path from a state
representing a true proposition.
 [s,r,p] corresponds to the sequence of inferences:

s and s→r yields r.

r and r→p yields p.
 Determining whether a given proposition is a logical
consequence of a set of propositions becomes a
problem of finding a path from a boxed node to the
goal node.
 propositional calculus
A set of assertions :
q → p; r → p; v → q; s → r; t → r;
s → u; s; t;
 State space graph of a set of implications

 the arcs correspond to logical implications (→) Boxed

nodes
 propositions given true (s and t) correspond to
the given data of the problem and represented
as boxed nodes.
Logical Operators
General Name Formal Name Symbols

Not Negation
¬
And Conjunction
∧
Or Disjunction
∨
If… Then/Implies Conditional →
If and only if Biconditional ↔
The Truth Table
P Q NOT AND OR Implies Biconditional
)¬(P P^Q PvQ PQ P  Q

T T F T T T T

T F F F T F F

F T T F T T F

F F T F F T T
Predicate Calculus Logic
 Basic idea : operator (variables_1, variables_2,…)
 Example: “She likes chocolate”  likes (she,
chocolate).
 Universal quantifier (∀X)  to show all object is
true [Eg: All students  (∀X (student (X))]
 Existential quantifier (∃ X)  to show existence /
partial object is true [ Eg: Some people ( ∃ X
(people (X))]
And/Or graphs
 If the premises of an implication are connected
by an ∧ operator, they are called AND nodes, and
the arcs from this node are joined by a curved
link.

 And/Or graph is actually a specialization of a type

of graph known as a hypergraph, which connects
nodes by sets of arcs.
 And/or graph

• And/or graph of
expression q ∨r → p
Or – separate arcs

• And/or graph of the

expression q ∧r → p
• and -- connected

∧ , ∨ :operators
HYPERGRAGH
 And/or graph of a set of propositional
calculus expressions.

a
b
c
a ∧b  d
b∧ df
a∧ c e
f g
a ∧e  h
•Is h true? Example for goal directed strategy
And/Or graph Search
∧ operator(and nodes) indicates a problem
decomposition in which the problem is
broken into subproblems such that all of
the subproblems must be solved to solve
the original problem.
 ∨ operator indicates a selection, a point at
which a choice may be made between
alternative problem-solving strategies.
Examples and Applications for
and/or graph searching
 Macsyma

 “Where is fred?”
 An English Language Parser and Sentence
Generator
 The Financial Advisor Revisited
 MACSYMA : An Example for goal
directed- and/or graph

And/or graph of part of the state space for integrating a function (goal directed)
“Where is fred?”: Example for Checking
English sentences Goal-directed and/or graph
The facts and rules of this example are given as English sentences
followed by their predicate calculus equivalents:
The solution subgraph showing that Fred is at
the museum.
An English Language Parser
and Sentence Generator
 Rewrite rules and transform it into another
the pattern on one site of the ↔ with the
pattern on the other side :
 For changing expression from language to
another
 Determine if sentences are well-formed
sentences
Rules for a simple subset of English grammar are:
An English Language Parser and
Sentence Generator:
A parser needs :
Grammar rules
Terminals : dictionary of words in the language ( a , the , man , dog ,
likes , bites)

And/or graph for the grammar. Some of the nodes (np, art, etc) have
been written more than once to simplify drawing the graph.
 Parse tree for the sentence “The dog
bites the man.”

•A Well –Formed expression

in the grammar consists of
terminals and that can be
reduce to the sentence
symbol
•Use data –driven parsing
(maching right hand side and
replace by the pattern on left
•Parsing is important for
natural Languages–
structuring compilers and
interpretors for computer
languages
Generating legal sentences by
a goal driven search
 Begin with sentence as top level goal and end when no more
rules to apply
 Create all acceptable sentence
 A sentence ia a np followed by a vp(1)
 Np is replaced by n (2) giving n vp
 Man is the first n available (8) giving man vp
 Np is satisfied and vp is attemped (3) replace vp with v giving
man v
 Replace v with likes (10
 Man likes the first acceptable sentence – there are 80 correct
sentences
 Repeat until all possible state space has been searched
 Parsing and generating can be used for completing sentences
(correctnes not symentic)
And/or graph searched by the financial advisor.
 Blind Search: Uniform-Cost

A
1 10

5 5
S B G
The goal state is achieved and the
15 path S-B-G is returned. In relation to
C path cost, UCS has found the optimal
route. Press space to end.
Press space to begin the search

Size of Queue: 031 Queue: Empty

S 10G
A,
B,
G B,
, 11
GC ,11C, C15

Nodes expanded: 3210 CurrentFINISHED

action: Expanding
Waiting….
Backtracking
SEARCH Current level: 210n/a
TIN 5013: Artificial Intelligence