SI: Systèmes Intelligents

L3 – SCI

Pr. Souham Meshoul

[email protected]

Problem Solving by Searching (2)

Informed Search
Chapter 3
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 Problem solving by searching 1

Objectives

 Learn the different algorithms that perform

search based on some heuristics.

 Learn how to evaluate the performance of an

informed search algorithm.

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Plan
 Introduction
 Best first search
 Greedy search
 A*
 Local search
 Hill climbing algorithm

 Stochastic search
 Simulated annealing
 Genetic algorithms
 Summary 3
 PROBLEM SOLVING BY SEARCHING (2)

Introduction: Informed Search

Definition: One that uses problem specific knowledge

beyond the definition of the problem itself to guide the
search.
Why Informed search?
 Without incorporating knowledge into searching, one is
forced to look everywhere to find the answer. Hence,
the complexity of uninformed search is intractable.
 With knowledge, one can search the state space as if
he was given “hints” when exploring a maze.
Heuristic information in search = Hints

 Leads to dramatic speed up in efficiency.

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Introduction: Informed Search

 Best-First Search : - Greedy Best First Search

- A* Search

 Local search algorithms

 Stochastic Search algorithms

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Best first search

 Key idea: 1. Use an evaluation function f(n) for each node:

estimate of “distance” to the goal.

2. Node with the lowest evaluation is chosen for expansion.

 Implementation:

fringe: maintain the fringe in ascending order of f-values

 Special cases:

 Greedy search
 A* search

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Formal description of Best-First Search algorithm

Function Best-First Search(problem,fringe,f) returns a solution

or a failure
// f: evaluation function
fringe ← Insert (Make-Node(Initial-state[problem],NULL,NULL,d,c),fringe)

Loop do
If Empty?(fringe) then return failure
node ← Remove-First(fringe)
If Goal-Test[ problem] applied to State[node] succeeds then
return Solution(node)
fringe ← Insert-all( Expand (node,problem),fringe)
sort fringe in ascending order of f-values

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Greedy search

 Let evaluation function f(n) be an estimate of cost from node n to

goal; this function is often called a heuristic and is denoted by
h(n). f(n) = h(n)

e.g., hSLD(n) = straight-line distance from n to Bucharest

 Greedy search expands the node that appears to be closest to

goal.

 Contrast with uniform-cost search in which lowest cost path from

start is expanded.

 Heuristic function is the way knowledge about the problem is

used to guide the search process.

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 PROBLEM SOLVING BY SEARCHING (2)
Greedy Search Properties

 Finds solution without ever expanding a node that is not

on the solution path.
 It is not optimal: the optimal path goes trough Ptesti.
 Minimizing h(n) is susceptible to false starts.
e.g getting from Iasi to Fagaras: according to h(n), we
take Neamt node to expand but it is a dead end.
 If repeated states are not detected, the solution will
never be found. Search gets stuck in loops:
Iasi →Neamet → Iasi → Neamet
 Complete in finite spaces with repeated state checking.

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A* search

 Most widely known for best-first search.

 Key idea: avoid expanding paths that are already
expensive.
 Evaluation function: f(n) = g(n) + h(n)

g(n) = path cost so far to reach n. (used in Uniform Cost

Search).
h(n) = estimated path cost to goal from n. (used in
Greedy Search).
f(n) = estimated total cost of path through n to goal.

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 PROBLEM SOLVING BY SEARCHING (2)
A* search

 Definition: a heuristic h(n) is said to be admissible if it never

overestimates the cost to reach the goal.

h(n)  h*(n)

where h*(n) is the TRUE cost from n.

e.g: hsld straight line can not be an overestimate.

 Consequently: if h(n) is an admissible heuristic, then f(n) never

overestimates the true cost of a solution through n. WHY?
It is true because g(n) gives the exact cost to reach n.

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 PROBLEM SOLVING BY SEARCHING (part 2)

root

g(n) : cost of path

n

h(n) : Heuristic
(expected) minimum
cost to goal
Goal
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 PROBLEM SOLVING BY SEARCHING (2)

A* search

Theorem:

When Tree-Search is used, A* is optimal if h(n) is an

admissible heuristic.

Proof: (voir TD)

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PROBLEM SOLVING BY SEARCHING (2)

A* search

 Consistency (= Monotonicity): A heuristic is said to be consistent when for

any node n, successor n’ of n, we have h(n) ≤ c(n,n’) + h(n’), where c(n,n’) is the
(minimum) cost of a step from n to n’.
 This is a form of triangular inequality:

n h(n)

c(n,n’) g
h(n’)
n’

Consistent heuristics are admissible. Not all admissible heuristics are consistent.
 When a heuristic is consistent, the values of f(n) along any path are
nondecreasing.
 A* with a consistent heuristic is optimal.

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A* search

Completeness: Yes, unless there are infinitely many nodes

with f ≤ f(G).

Optimality: Yes.

Time: Exponential.

Space: Keeps all nodes in memory.

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Some admissible heuristics:

 8-Puzzle:
g(n): the path cost can be measured by the total
number of horizontal and vertical moves.
h(n): two different heuristics

h1 (n): number of misplaced tiles.

h2 (n): the sum of the distances of the tiles from

their goal positions.

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 PROBLEM SOLVING BY SEARCHING (2)

Local Search algorithms

 The search algorithms we have seen so far keep track of the current
state, the “fringe” of the search space, and the path to the final state.

 In some problems, one doesn’t care about a solution path but only the
final goal state. The solution is the goal state. Example: 8-queen
problem.

 Local search algorithms are also useful for optimization problems where
the goal is to find a state such that an objective function is optimized.

 For the 8-queen algorithm, the objective function may be the number of
attacks.

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Local Search algorithms

Basic idea: Local search algorithms operate on a single state – current

state – and move to one of its neighboring states.

Therefore: Solution path needs not be maintained.

Hence, the search is “local”.

Two advantages
 Use little memory.
 More applicable in searching large/infinite search space. They find
reasonable solutions in this case.

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A state space landscape is a graph of states associated with their

costs

Problem: local search can get stuck on a local maximum and not find
the optimal solution

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 Local Search: Hill Climbing

• Hill climbing search algorithm (also known as greedy

local search) uses a loop that continually moves in the
direction of increasing values (that is uphill).

• It teminates when it reaches a peak where no neighbor

has a higher value.

• A complete local search algorithm always find a goal if

one exists.

• An optimal algorithm always finds a global

maximum/minimum.

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 Local search
Steepest ascent version

Function Hill climbing (problem) return state that is a local maximum

Inputs: problem: a problem
Local variables: current: a node
neighbor: a node
Current ← Make-Node (initial-state [problem])
Loop do
neighbor ← a highest-valued successor of current
If Value[neighbor] ≤ Value[current] then return state [current]
Current ← neighbor
EndLoop

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Local search: steepest descent
version
minimum global
f(x)

x
What we should find 31
Local search: steepest descent
version
Initial solution
f(x)

x
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Local search: steepest descent
version
Current solution
f(x)

New neighbor solution

x
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Local search: steepest descent
version
Solution courante
f(x)
Solution voisine générée

x
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Local search: steepest descent
version
Current solution
f(x)

New neighbor solution

x
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Local search: steepest descent
version
Current solution
f(x)
New neighbor solution

x
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Local search: steepest descent
version
Final solution
f(x)

x
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 Local Beam Search

 Unlike Hill Climbing, Local Beam Search keeps track of

k states rather than just one.
 It starts with k randomly generated states.
 At each step, all the successors of all the states are
generated.
 If any one is a goal, the algorithm halts, otherwise it
selects the k best successors from the complete list
and repeats.
 LBS≠ running k random restarts in parallel instead of
sequence.
 Drawback: less diversity. → Stochastic Beam Search

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Stochastic search: Simulated Annealing
 Basic inspiration: What is annealing?

In mettallurgy, annealing is the physical process used to temper or harden

metals or glass by heating them to a high temperature and then gradually
cooling them, thus allowing the material to coalesce into a low energy
cristalline state.

Heating then slowly cooling a substance to obtain a strong cristalline

structure.

 Key idea: Simulated Annealing combines Hill Climbing with a random

walk in some way that yields both efficiency and completeness.

 Used to solve VLSI layout problems in the early 1980

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Stochastic search: Simulated Annealing
Function Simulated annealing (problem, schedule) return a solution state
Inputs: problem, a problem
schedule, a mapping from time to temperature
Local variables: current, a node
next, a node
T, a temperature controlling the probability of downward steps
Current ← Make-Node (initial-state [problem])
For t←1 to max do
T ← schedule [t]
If T=0 then return current
Loop do
Next ← a randomly selected successor of current.
∆E ← Value [next] - Value [current]
If ∆E < 0 then current ← next // minimization problem
Else current ← next only with probability e -∆E/kT
Endif
Endloop
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Current Solution and best solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Current Solution and best solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Current Solution

Best solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Current Solution and best solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Current Solution and Best solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Best solution

Current Solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Current Solution and best solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Best solution

Current Solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Best solution

Current Solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Best solution

Current Solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Best solution

Current Solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Best solution

Current Solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Best solution

Current Solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Best solution

Current solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Current Solution and best solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x)
Meilleure solution

Solution courante

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Current Solution and Best solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Current Solution and Best solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x)
Best solution

Current Solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x)
Best solution

Current Solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x)
Best solution

Current Solution

x
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Simulated annealing

f(x) Solution courante et Meilleure solution

x
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Simulated Annealing

f(x) Current Solution and Best solution

x
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 Stochastic search: Genetic algorithms

 Formally introduced in the US in the 70s by John

Holland.
 GAs emulate ideas from genetics and natural selection
and can search potentially large spaces.
 Before we can apply Genetic Algorithm to a problem,
we need to answer:

- How is an individual represented

- What is the fitness function?
- How are individuals selected?
- How do individuals reproduce?

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 Stochastic search: Genetic
algorithms
• Genetic algorithms is a variant of local beam search.
• Successors in this case are generated by combining
two parent states rather than modifying a single state.
• Like local beam search, genetic algorithms starts with
a set of k randomly generated states called Population.
• Each state or individual is represented as a string over
a finite alphabet.
• Each state or individual is represented as a string over
a finite alphabet. It is also called chromosome.

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 Stochastic search: Genetic
algorithms
• Each state is rated by the evaluation function called fitness
function.

• Fitness function should return higher values for better states.

• For reproduction, individuals are selected with a probability which

is directly proportional to the fitness score.

• For each pair to be mated, a crossover point is randomly chosen

from the positions in the string.

• The offsprings themselves are created by crossing over the

parent strings at the crossover point.

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 Stochastic search: Genetic
algorithms

• Mutation is performed randomly with a small

independent probability.

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Stochastic search: Genetic algorithms

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Stochastic search: Genetic algorithms

Function Genetic-Algorithm (population, fitness-Fn) returns individual

Inputs: population, a set of individuals
fitness-Fn, a function that measures the fitness of an individual

Repeat
New population ← empty set;
for i from 1 to SizePopulation do
{x ← random-Selection (population, fitness-Fn);
y ← random-Selection (population, fitness-Fn);
Child ← Reproduce (x,y);
If (small random probability) then child ← mutate(child)
Add child to new population }

Population ← new population

Until some individual is fit enough or enough time has elapsed;
Return the best individual in population, according to Fitness-Fn

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Genetic Algorithms
Cost

States
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Genetic Algorithms

Mutation

Cross-Over

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Summary

• Informed search uses knowledge about the problem to reduce search

costs.
• This knowledge is expressed in terms of heuristics.
• Best first search is a class of methods that use a variant of graph-search
where the minimum-cost unexpanded nodes are chosen for expansion.
• Best first search methods use a heuristic function h(n) that estimates the
cost of a solution from a node.
• Greedy search is a best first search that expands nodes with minimal
h(n). It is not optimal but often efficient.
• A* search is a best first search that takes into account the total cost from
the root node to goal node. It expands node with minimal f(n) = g(n) +
h(n). It is complete and optimal provided that h(n) is admissible (for tree
search) or consistent (for graph search). The space complexity is
prohibitive.

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Summary

Construction of heuristics can be done by relaxing the problem definition

(in a sense simplifying the problem), by precomputing solution costs for
subproblems or learning from experience with the problem class.

Local search methods keep small number of nodes in memory. They are
suitable for problems where the solution is the goal state itself and not the
path.

Simulated annealing is a stochastic search algorithm that combines

random walk with local search

Stochastic algorithms represent another class of methods for informed

search. Genetic algorithms are a kind of stochastic hill-climbing search in
which a large population of states is maintained. New states are generated
by mutation and by crossover which combines pairs of states from the
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population.