1. Russell and Norvig: Ch. 4.1 - 4.3 CSMSC 421 – Fall 2006
Informed Search
Russell and Norvig: Ch
CSMSC 421 – Fall 2006

2. Outline Informed = use problem-specific knowledge
Which search strategies?
Best-first search and its variants
Heuristic functions?
How to invent them
Local search and optimization
Hill climbing, simulated annealing, local beam search,…

3. Previously: Graph search algorithm
function GRAPH-SEARCH(problem,fringe) return a solution or failure
closed  an empty set
fringe  INSERT(MAKE-NODE(INITIAL-STATE[problem]), 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)
if STATE[node] is not in closed then
add STATE[node] to closed
fringe  INSERT-ALL(EXPAND(node, problem), fringe)
A strategy is defined by picking the order of node expansion

4. Blind Search…
…[the ant] knew that a certain arrangement had to be made, but it could not figure out how to make it. It was like a man with a tea-cup in one hand and a sandwich in the other, who wants to light a cigarette with a match. But, where the man would invent the idea of putting down the cup and sandwich—before picking up the cigarette and the match—this ant would have put down the sandwich and picked up the match, then it would have been down with the match and up with the cigarette, then down with the cigarette and up with the sandwich, then down with the cup and up with the cigarette, until finally it had put down the sandwich and picked up the match. It was inclined to rely on a series of accidents to achieve its object. It was patient and did not think… Wart watched the arrangements with a surprise which turned into vexation and then into dislike. He felt like asking why it did not think things out in advance… T.H. White, The Once and Future King

5. Search Algorithms Blind search – BFS, DFS, uniform cost
no notion concept of the “right direction”
can only recognize goal once it’s achieved
Heuristic search – we have rough idea of how good various states are, and use this knowledge to guide our search

6. Best-first search
General approach of informed search:
Best-first search: node is selected for expansion based on an evaluation function f(n)
Idea: evaluation function measures distance to the goal.
Choose node which appears best
Implementation:
fringe is queue sorted in decreasing order of desirability.
Special cases: Greedy search, A* search

7. Heuristic Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Heuristic \Heu*ris"tic\, a. [Greek. to discover.] Serving to discover or find out.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98)
heuristic 1. <programming> A rule of thumb, simplification or educated guess that reduces or limits the search for solutions in domains that are difficult and poorly understood. Unlike algorithms, heuristics do not guarantee feasible solutions and are often used with no theoretical guarantee. 2. <algorithm> approximation algorithm.
From WordNet (r) 1.6
heuristic adj 1: (computer science) relating to or using a heuristic rule 2: of or relating to a general formulation that serves to guide investigation [ant: algorithmic] n : a commonsense rule (or set of rules) intended to increase the probability of solving some problem [syn: heuristic rule, heuristic program]

8. Informed Search
Add domain-specific information to select the best path along which to continue searching
Define a heuristic function, h(n), that estimates the “goodness” of a node n.
Specifically, h(n) = estimated cost (or distance) of minimal cost path from n to a goal state.
The heuristic function is an estimate, based on domain-specific information that is computable from the current state description, of how close we are to a goal

9. Greedy Best-First Search
f(N) = h(N)  greedy best-first

10. Robot Navigation

11. Robot Navigation
f(N) = h(N), with h(N) = Manhattan distance to the goal 2 1 5 8 7 3 4 6

12. Robot Navigation
f(N) = h(N), with h(N) = Manhattan distance to the goal 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 3 4 5 6 7 5 4 3 5 6 3 2 1 1 2 4
What happened??? 7 7 6 5 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 3 4 5 6

13. Greedy Search f(N) = h(N)  Greedy best-first Is it complete?
Is it optimal?
Time complexity?
Space complexity?

14. More informed search
We kept looking at nodes closer and closer to the goal, but were accumulating costs as we got further from the initial state
Our goal is not to minimize the distance from the current head of our path to the goal, we want to minimize the overall length of the path to the goal!
Let g(N) be the cost of the best path found so far between the initial node and N
f(N) = g(N) + h(N)  A*

15. A* search Best-known form of best-first search.
Idea: avoid expanding paths that are already expensive.
Evaluation function f(n)=g(n) + h(n)  A*
g(n) the cost (so far) to reach the node.
h(n) estimated cost to get from the node to the goal.
f(n) estimated total cost of path through n to goal.

16. Robot Navigation
f(N) = g(N)+h(N), with h(N) = Manhattan distance to goal
7+2
8+3 2 1 5 8 7 3 4 6
8+3
7+4
7+4
6+5
5+6
6+3
4+7
5+6
3+8
4+7
3+8
2+9
2+9
3+10
7+2
6+1
2+9
3+8
6+1
8+1
7+0
2+9
1+10
1+10
0+11
7+0
7+2
6+1
8+1
7+2
6+3
6+3
5+4
5+4
4+5
4+5
3+6
3+6
2+7
2+7
3+8

17. Can we Prove Anything?
If the state space is finite and we avoid repeated states, the search is complete, but in general is not optimal
If the state space is finite and we do not avoid repeated states, the search is in general not complete
If the state space is infinite, the search is in general not complete

18. Admissible heuristic
Let h*(N) be the true cost of the optimal path from N to a goal node
Heuristic h(N) is admissible if:  h(N)  h*(N)
An admissible heuristic is always optimistic

19. Optimality of A*(standard proof)
Suppose suboptimal goal G2 in the queue.
Let n be an unexpanded node on a shortest to optimal goal G.
f(G2 ) = g(G2 ) since h(G2 )=0
> g(G) since G2 is suboptimal
>= f(n) since h is admissible
Since f(G2) > f(n), A* will never select G2 for expansion

20. BUT … graph search Discards new paths to repeated state. Solution:
Previous proof breaks down
Solution:
Add extra bookkeeping i.e. remove more expensive of two paths.
Ensure that optimal path to any repeated state is always first followed.
Extra requirement on h(n): consistency (monotonicity)

21. Consistency A heuristic is consistent if If h is consistent, we have
i.e. f(n) is nondecreasing along any path.

22. Optimality of A*(more useful)
A* expands nodes in order of increasing f value
Contours can be drawn in state space
Uniform-cost search adds circles.
F-contours are gradually
Added:
1) nodes with f(n)<C*
2) Some nodes on the goal
Contour (f(n)=C*).
Contour I has all
Nodes with f=fi, where
fi < fi+1.

23. A* search, evaluation Completeness: YES
Since bands of increasing f are added
Unless there are infinitely many nodes with f<f(G)

24. A* search, evaluation Completeness: YES Time complexity:
Number of nodes expanded is still exponential in the length of the solution.

25. A* search, evaluation Completeness: YES
Time complexity: (exponential with path length)
Space complexity:
It keeps all generated nodes in memory
Hence space is the major problem not time

26. A* search, evaluation Completeness: YES
Time complexity: (exponential with path length)
Space complexity:(all nodes are stored)
Optimality: YES
Cannot expand fi+1 until fi is finished.
A* expands all nodes with f(n)< C*
A* expands some nodes with f(n)=C*
A* expands no nodes with f(n)>C*
Also optimally efficient (not including ties)

27. Memory-bounded heuristic search
Some solutions to A* space problems (maintain completeness and optimality)
Iterative-deepening A* (IDA*)
Here cutoff information is the f-cost (g+h) instead of depth
Recursive best-first search(RBFS)
Recursive algorithm that attempts to mimic standard best-first search with linear space.
(simple) Memory-bounded A* ((S)MA*)
Drop the worst-leaf node when memory is full

28. Recursive best-first search
function RECURSIVE-BEST-FIRST-SEARCH(problem) return a solution or failure
return RFBS(problem,MAKE-NODE(INITIAL-STATE[problem]),∞)
function RFBS( problem, node, f_limit) return a solution or failure and a new f-cost limit
if GOAL-TEST[problem](STATE[node]) then return node
successors  EXPAND(node, problem)
if successors is empty then return failure, ∞
for each s in successors do
f [s]  max(g(s) + h(s), f [node])
repeat
best  the lowest f-value node in successors
if f [best] > f_limit then return failure, f [best]
alternative  the second lowest f-value among successors
result, f [best]  RBFS(problem, best, min(f_limit, alternative))
if result  failure then return result

29. Recursive best-first search
Keeps track of the f-value of the best-alternative path available.
If current f-values exceeds this alternative f-value than backtrack to alternative path.
Upon backtracking change f-value to best f-value of its children.
Re-expansion of this result is thus still possible.

30. Recursive best-first search, ex.
Path until Rumnicu Vilcea is already expanded
Above node; f-limit for every recursive call is shown on top.
Below node: f(n)
The path is followed until Pitesti which has a f-value worse than the f-limit.

31. Recursive best-first search, ex.
Unwind recursion and store best f-value for current best leaf Pitesti
result, f [best]  RBFS(problem, best, min(f_limit, alternative))
best is now Fagaras. Call RBFS for new best
best value is now 450

32. Recursive best-first search, ex.
Unwind recursion and store best f-value for current best leaf Fagaras
result, f [best]  RBFS(problem, best, min(f_limit, alternative))
best is now Rimnicu Viclea (again). Call RBFS for new best
Subtree is again expanded.
Best alternative subtree is now through Timisoara.
Solution is found since because 447 > 417.

33. RBFS evaluation RBFS is a bit more efficient than IDA*
Still excessive node generation (mind changes)
Like A*, optimal if h(n) is admissible
Space complexity is O(bd).
IDA* retains only one single number (the current f-cost limit)
Time complexity difficult to characterize
Depends on accuracy if h(n) and how often best path changes.
IDA* and RBFS suffer from too little memory.

34. (simplified) memory-bounded A*
Use all available memory.
I.e. expand best leafs until available memory is full
When full, SMA* drops worst leaf node (highest f-value)
Like RFBS backup forgotten node to its parent
What if all leafs have the same f-value?
Same node could be selected for expansion and deletion.
SMA* solves this by expanding newest best leaf and deleting oldest worst leaf.
SMA* is complete if solution is reachable, optimal if optimal solution is reachable.

35. Heuristic functions E.g for the 8-puzzle
Avg. solution cost is about 22 steps (branching factor +/- 3)
Exhaustive search to depth 22: 3.1 x 1010 states.
A good heuristic function can reduce the search process.

36. Heuristic Function
Function h(N) that estimates the cost of the cheapest path from node N to goal node.
Example: 8-puzzle 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
h1(N) = number of misplaced tiles = 6
goal N

37. Heuristic Function
Function h(N) that estimate the cost of the cheapest path from node N to goal node.
Example: 8-puzzle 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
h2(N) = sum of the distances of
every tile to its goal position =
= 13
goal N

38. 8-Puzzle f(N) = h1(N) = number of misplaced tiles 3 4 3 4 5 3 3 4 2 44 4 2 1

39. 8-Puzzle f(N) = g(N) + h(N) with h1(N) = number of misplaced tiles 3+3
3+4
1+5
1+3
2+3
2+4
5+2
5+0
0+4
3+4
3+2
4+1

40. 8-Puzzle
f(N) = h2(N) =  distances of tiles to goal 6 4 5 3 2 5 4 2 1

41. 8-Puzzle EXERCISE: f(N) = g(N) + h2(N)
with h2(N) =  distances of tiles to goal
0+4

42. Heuristic quality Effective branching factor b*
Is the branching factor that a uniform tree of depth d would have in order to contain N+1 nodes.
Measure is fairly constant for sufficiently hard problems.
Can thus provide a good guide to the heuristic’s overall usefulness.
A good value of b* is 1.

43. Heuristic quality and dominance
1200 random problems with solution lengths from 2 to 24.
If h2(n) >= h1(n) for all n (both admissible)
then h2 dominates h1 and is better for search

44. Inventing admissible heuristics
Admissible heuristics can be derived from the exact solution cost of a relaxed version of the problem:
Relaxed 8-puzzle for h1 : a tile can move anywhere
As a result, h1(n) gives the shortest solution
Relaxed 8-puzzle for h2 : a tile can move to any adjacent square.
As a result, h2(n) gives the shortest solution.
The optimal solution cost of a relaxed problem is no greater than the optimal solution cost of the real problem.

45. Another approach… Local Search
Previously: systematic exploration of search space.
Path to goal is solution to problem
YET, for some problems path is irrelevant.
E.g 8-queens
Different algorithms can be used: Local Search
Hill-climbing or Gradient descent
Simulated Annealing
Genetic Algorithms, others…
Also applicable to optimization problems
systematic search doesn’t work
however, can start with a suboptimal solution and improve it

46. Local search and optimization
Local search= use single current state and move to neighboring states.
Advantages:
Use very little memory
Find often reasonable solutions in large or infinite state spaces.
Are also useful for pure optimization problems.
Find best state according to some objective function.

47. Local search and optimization

48. Hill-climbing search
“is a loop that continuously moves in the direction of increasing value”
It terminates when a peak is reached.
Hill climbing does not look ahead of the immediate neighbors of the current state.
Hill-climbing chooses randomly among the set of best successors, if there is more than one.
Hill-climbing a.k.a. greedy local search
Some problem spaces are great for hill climbing and others are terrible.

49. Hill-climbing search
function HILL-CLIMBING(problem) return a state that is a local maximum
input: 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

50. Local-minimum problem
Robot Navigation
Local-minimum problem
f(N) = h(N) = straight distance to the goal

51. Hill climbing example 2 8 3 1 6 4 7 5 1 3 8 4 7 6 5 2 start h = -4
goal
h = 0 -2 -5 -5 2 8 3 1 4 7 6 5 1 3 8 4 7 6 5 2
h = -3
h = -1 -3 -4 2 3 1 8 4 7 6 5 3 1 8 4 7 6 5 2
h = -2
h = -3 -4
f(n) = -(number of tiles out of place)

52. Example of a local maximum1 2 5 7 4 8 6 3 -4
start
goal 1 2 5 7 4 8 6 3 1 2 5 7 4 8 6 3 1 2 5 7 4 8 6 3 -4 -3 1 2 5 7 4 8 6 3 -4

53. Examples of problems with HC
applet

54. Drawbacks of hill climbing
Problems:
Local Maxima: peaks that aren’t the highest point in the space
Plateaus: the space has a broad flat region that gives the search algorithm no direction (random walk)
Ridges: flat like a plateau, but with dropoffs to the sides; steps to the North, East, South and West may go down, but a combination of two steps (e.g. N, W) may go up.
Remedy:
Introduce randomness

55. Hill-climbing variations
Stochastic hill-climbing
Random selection among the uphill moves.
The selection probability can vary with the steepness of the uphill move.
First-choice hill-climbing
Stochastic hill climbing by generating successors randomly until a better one is found.
Random-restart hill-climbing
Tries to avoid getting stuck in local maxima.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…

56. Simulated annealing Escape local maxima by allowing “bad” moves.
Idea: but gradually decrease their size and frequency.
Origin; metallurgical annealing
Bouncing ball analogy:
Shaking hard (= high temperature).
Shaking less (= lower the temperature).
If T decreases slowly enough, best state is reached.
Applied for VLSI layout, airline scheduling, etc.

57. Simulated annealing
function SIMULATED-ANNEALING( problem, schedule) return a solution state
input: 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 ∞ do
T  schedule[t]
if T = 0 then return current
next  a randomly selected successor of current
∆E  VALUE[next] - VALUE[current]
if ∆E > 0 then current  next
else current  next only with probability e∆E /T

58. Simulated Annealing applet
Successful application: circuit routing, traveling sales person (TSP)

59. Local beam search Keep track of k states instead of one
Initially: k random states
Next: determine all successors of k states
If any of successors is goal  finished
Else select k best from successors and repeat.
Major difference with random-restart search
Information is shared among k search threads.
Can suffer from lack of diversity.
Stochastic variant: choose k successors at proportionally to state success.

60. When to Use Search Techniques?
The search space is small, and
There is no other available techniques, or
It is not worth the effort to develop a more efficient technique
The search space is large, and
There is no other available techniques, and
There exist “good” heuristics

61. Summary: Informed Search
Heuristics
Best-first Search Algorithms
Greedy Search A*
Admissible heuristics
Constructing Heuristic functions
Local Search Algorithms