Artificial Intelligence AIMA Exercises

 Exercises of Chapter 3 AI a modern approach 4th us ed citation Go!

3. Solving Problems By Searching

Exercise 1
 

Explain why problem formulation must follow goal formulation.

Exercise 2
 

Give a complete problem formulation for each of the following problems. Choose a formulation
that is precise enough to be implemented.
1. There are six glass boxes in a row, each with a lock. Each of the first five boxes holds a key
unlocking the next box in line; the last box holds a banana. You have the key to the first box, and
you want the banana.
2. You start with the sequence ABABAECCEC, or in general any sequence made from A, B, C, and E.
You can transform this sequence using the following equalities: AC = E, AB = BC, BB = E, and Ex = x
for any x. For example, ABBC can be transformed into AEC, and then AC, and then E. Your goal is
to produce the sequence E.
3. There is an n × n grid of squares, each square initially being either unpainted floor or a
bottomless pit. You start standing on an unpainted floor square, and can either paint the square
under you or move onto an adjacent unpainted floor square. You want the whole floor painted.
4. A container ship is in port, loaded high with containers. There 13 rows of containers, each 13
containers wide and 5 containers tall. You control a crane that can move to any location above
the ship, pick up the container under it, and move it onto the dock. You want the ship unloaded.

Exercise 3
 

Your goal is to navigate a robot out of a maze. The robot starts in the center of the maze facing
north. You can turn the robot to face north, east, south, or west. You can direct the robot to move
forward a certain distance, although it will stop before hitting a wall.
1. Formulate this problem. How large is the state space?
2. In navigating a maze, the only place we need to turn is at the intersection of two or more
corridors. Reformulate this problem using this observation. How large is the state space now?
3. From each point in the maze, we can move in any of the four directions until we reach a
turning point, and this is the only action we need to do. Reformulate the problem using these
actions. Do we need to keep track of the robot’s orientation now?
4. In our initial description of the problem we already abstracted from the real world, restricting
actions and removing details. List three such simplifications we made.

Exercise 4
 

You have a 9 × 9 grid of squares, each of which can be colored red or blue. The grid is initially
colored all blue, but you can change the color of any square any number of times. Imagining the
grid divided into nine 3 × 3 sub-squares, you want each sub-square to be all one color but
neighboring sub-squares to be different colors.
1. Formulate this problem in the straightforward way. Compute the size of the state space.
2. You need color a square only once. Reformulate, and compute the size of the state space.
Would breadth-first graph search perform faster on this problem than on the one in (a)? How
about iterative deepening tree search?
3. Given the goal, we need consider only colorings where each sub-square is uniformly colored.
Reformulate the problem and compute the size of the state space.
4. How many solutions does this problem have?
5. Parts (b) and (c) successively abstracted the original problem (a). Can you give a translation
from solutions in problem (c) into solutions in problem (b), and from solutions in problem (b) into
solutions for problem (a)?

Exercise 5 (two-friends-exercise)
 

Suppose two friends live in different cities on a map, such as the Romania map shown in . On
every turn, we can simultaneously move each friend to a neighboring city on the map. The
amount of time needed to move from city i to neighbor j is equal to the road distance d(i, j)
between the cities, but on each turn the friend that arrives first must wait until the other one
arrives (and calls the first on his/her cell phone) before the next turn can begin. We want the two
friends to meet as quickly as possible.
1. Write a detailed formulation for this search problem. (You will find it helpful to define some
formal notation here.)
2. Let D(i, j) be the straight-line distance between cities i and j. Which of the following heuristic
functions are admissible? (i) D(i, j); (ii) 2 ⋅ D(i, j); (iii) D(i, j)/2 .
3. Are there completely connected maps for which no solution exists?
4. Are there maps in which all solutions require one friend to visit the same city twice?
Exercise 6 (8puzzle-parity-exercise)
 

Show that the 8-puzzle states are divided into two disjoint sets, such that any state is reachable
from any other state in the same set, while no state is reachable from any state in the other set.
(Hint: See Berlekamp+al:1982) Devise a procedure to decide which set a given state is in, and
explain why this is useful for generating random states.

Exercise 7 (nqueens-size-exercise)
 

Consider the n-queens problem using the “efficient” incremental formulation given on page .
−
−
Explain why the state space has at least √n! states and estimate the largest n for which
3

exhaustive exploration is feasible. (Hint: Derive a lower bound on the branching factor by
considering the maximum number of squares that a queen can attack in any column.)

Exercise 8
 

Give a complete problem formulation for each of the following. Choose a formulation that is
precise enough to be implemented.
1. Using only four colors, you have to color a planar map in such a way that no two adjacent
regions have the same color.
2. A 3-foot-tall monkey is in a room where some bananas are suspended from the 8-foot ceiling.
He would like to get the bananas. The room contains two stackable, movable, climbable 3-foot-
high crates.
3. You have a program that outputs the message “illegal input record” when fed a certain file of
input records. You know that processing of each record is independent of the other records. You
want to discover what record is illegal.
4. You have three jugs, measuring 12 gallons, 8 gallons, and 3 gallons, and a water faucet. You can
fill the jugs up or empty them out from one to another or onto the ground. You need to measure
out exactly one gallon.

Exercise 9 (path-planning-exercise)
 

Consider the problem of finding the shortest path between two points on a plane that has
convex polygonal obstacles as shown in . This is an idealization of the problem that a robot has
to solve to navigate in a crowded environment.
1. Suppose the state space consists of all positions (x, y) in the plane. How many states are
there? How many paths are there to the goal?
2. Explain briefly why the shortest path from one polygon vertex to any other in the scene must
consist of straight-line segments joining some of the vertices of the polygons. Define a good
state space now. How large is this state space?
3. Define the necessary functions to implement the search problem, including an function that
takes a vertex as input and returns a set of vectors, each of which maps the current vertex to
one of the vertices that can be reached in a straight line. (Do not forget the neighbors on the
same polygon.) Use the straight-line distance for the heuristic function.
4. Apply one or more of the algorithms in this chapter to solve a range of problems in the
domain, and comment on their performance.

Exercise 10 (negative-g-exercise)
 

On page , we said that we would not consider problems with negative path costs. In this exercise,
we explore this decision in more depth.
1. Suppose that actions can have arbitrarily large negative costs; explain why this possibility
would force any optimal algorithm to explore the entire state space.
2. Does it help if we insist that step costs must be greater than or equal to some negative
constant c? Consider both trees and graphs.
3. Suppose that a set of actions forms a loop in the state space such that executing the set in
some order results in no net change to the state. If all of these actions have negative cost, what
does this imply about the optimal behavior for an agent in such an environment?
4. One can easily imagine actions with high negative cost, even in domains such as route finding.
For example, some stretches of road might have such beautiful scenery as to far outweigh the
normal costs in terms of time and fuel. Explain, in precise terms, within the context of state-space
search, why humans do not drive around scenic loops indefinitely, and explain how to define the
state space and actions for route finding so that artificial agents can also avoid looping.
5. Can you think of a real domain in which step costs are such as to cause looping?

Exercise 11 (mc-problem)
 

The problem is usually stated as follows. Three missionaries and three cannibals are on one side
of a river, along with a boat that can hold one or two people. Find a way to get everyone to the
other side without ever leaving a group of missionaries in one place outnumbered by the
cannibals in that place. This problem is famous in AI because it was the subject of the first paper
that approached problem formulation from an analytical viewpoint Amarel:1968.
1. Formulate the problem precisely, making only those distinctions necessary to ensure a valid
solution. Draw a diagram of the complete state space.
2. Implement and solve the problem optimally using an appropriate search algorithm. Is it a
good idea to check for repeated states?
3. Why do you think people have a hard time solving this puzzle, given that the state space is so
simple?

Exercise 12
 

Define in your own words the following terms: state, state space, search tree, search node, goal,
action, transition model, and branching factor.

Exercise 13
 

What’s the difference between a world state, a state description, and a search node? Why is this
distinction useful?

Exercise 14
 

An action such as really consists of a long sequence of finer-grained actions: turn on the car,
release the brake, accelerate forward, etc. Having composite actions of this kind reduces the
number of steps in a solution sequence, thereby reducing the search time. Suppose we take this
to the logical extreme, by making super-composite actions out of every possible sequence of
actions. Then every problem instance is solved by a single super-composite action, such as .
Explain how search would work in this formulation. Is this a practical approach for speeding up
problem solving?

Exercise 15
 

Does a finite state space always lead to a finite search tree? How about a finite state space that
is a tree? Can you be more precise about what types of state spaces always lead to finite search
trees? (Adapted from , 1996.)

Exercise 16 (graph-separation-property-exercise)
 
Prove that satisfies the graph separation property illustrated in . (Hint: Begin by showing that the
property holds at the start, then show that if it holds before an iteration of the algorithm, it holds
afterwards.) Describe a search algorithm that violates the property.

Exercise 17
 

Which of the following are true and which are false? Explain your answers.
1. Depth-first search always expands at least as many nodes as A search with an admissible
heuristic.
2. h(n) = 0 is an admissible heuristic for the 8-puzzle.
3. A is of no use in robotics because percepts, states, and actions are continuous.
4. Breadth-first search is complete even if zero step costs are allowed.
5. Assume that a rook can move on a chessboard any number of squares in a straight line,
vertically or horizontally, but cannot jump over other pieces. Manhattan distance is an
admissible heuristic for the problem of moving the rook from square A to square B in the smallest
number of moves.

Exercise 18
 

Consider a state space where the start state is number 1 and each state k has two successors:
numbers 2k and 2k + 1.
1. Draw the portion of the state space for states 1 to 15.
2. Suppose the goal state is 11. List the order in which nodes will be visited for breadth-first search,
depth-limited search with limit 3, and iterative deepening search.
3. How well would bidirectional search work on this problem? What is the branching factor in
each direction of the bidirectional search?
4. Does the answer to (c) suggest a reformulation of the problem that would allow you to solve
the problem of getting from state 1 to a given goal state with almost no search?
5. Call the action going from k to 2k Left, and the action going to 2k + 1 Right. Can you find an
algorithm that outputs the solution to this problem without any search at all?

Exercise 19 (brio-exercise)
 

A basic wooden railway set contains the pieces shown in . The task is to connect these pieces
into a railway that has no overlapping tracks and no loose ends where a train could run off onto
the floor.
1. Suppose that the pieces fit together exactly with no slack. Give a precise formulation of the task
as a search problem.
2. Identify a suitable uninformed search algorithm for this task and explain your choice.
3. Explain why removing any one of the “fork” pieces makes the problem unsolvable.
4. Give an upper bound on the total size of the state space defined by your formulation. (Hint:
think about the maximum branching factor for the construction process and the maximum
depth, ignoring the problem of overlapping pieces and loose ends. Begin by pretending that
every piece is unique.)

Exercise 20
 

Implement two versions of the function for the 8-puzzle: one that copies and edits the data
structure for the parent node s and one that modifies the parent state directly (undoing the
modifications as needed). Write versions of iterative deepening depth-first search that use these
functions and compare their performance.

Exercise 21 (iterative-lengthening-exercise)
 

On page , we mentioned iterative lengthening search, an iterative analog of uniform cost search.
The idea is to use increasing limits on path cost. If a node is generated whose path cost exceeds
the current limit, it is immediately discarded. For each new iteration, the limit is set to the lowest
path cost of any node discarded in the previous iteration.
1. Show that this algorithm is optimal for general path costs.
2. Consider a uniform tree with branching factor b, solution depth d, and unit step costs. How
many iterations will iterative lengthening require?
3. Now consider step costs drawn from the continuous range [ϵ, 1], where 0 < ϵ < 1. How many
iterations are required in the worst case?
4. Implement the algorithm and apply it to instances of the 8-puzzle and traveling salesperson
problems. Compare the algorithm’s performance to that of uniform-cost search, and comment
on your results.

Exercise 22
 

Describe a state space in which iterative deepening search performs much worse than depth-
first search (for example, O(n2 ) vs. O(n)).
Exercise 23
 

Write a program that will take as input two Web page URLs and find a path of links from one to
the other. What is an appropriate search strategy? Is bidirectional search a good idea? Could a
search engine be used to implement a predecessor function?

Exercise 24 (vacuum-search-exercise)
 

Consider the vacuum-world problem defined in .

1. Which of the algorithms defined in this chapter would be appropriate for this problem? Should
the algorithm use tree search or graph search?
2. Apply your chosen algorithm to compute an optimal sequence of actions for a 3 × 3 world
whose initial state has dirt in the three top squares and the agent in the center.
3. Construct a search agent for the vacuum world, and evaluate its performance in a set of 3 × 3
worlds with probability 0.2 of dirt in each square. Include the search cost as well as path cost in
the performance measure, using a reasonable exchange rate.
4. Compare your best search agent with a simple randomized reflex agent that sucks if there is
dirt and otherwise moves randomly.
5. Consider what would happen if the world were enlarged to n × n . How does the performance
of the search agent and of the reflex agent vary with n?

Exercise 25 (search-special-case-exercise)
 

Prove each of the following statements, or give a counterexample:

1. Breadth-first search is a special case of uniform-cost search.
2. Depth-first search is a special case of best-first tree search.
3. Uniform-cost search is a special case of A search.

Exercise 26
 

Compare the performance of A and RBFS on a set of randomly generated problems in the 8-
puzzle (with Manhattan distance) and TSP (with MST—see ) domains. Discuss your results. What
happens to the performance of RBFS when a small random number is added to the heuristic
values in the 8-puzzle domain?
Exercise 27
 

Trace the operation of A search applied to the problem of getting to Bucharest from Lugoj using
the straight-line distance heuristic. That is, show the sequence of nodes that the algorithm will
consider and the f , g, and h score for each node.

Exercise 28
 

Sometimes there is no good evaluation function for a problem but there is a good comparison
method: a way to tell whether one node is better than another without assigning numerical
values to either. Show that this is enough to do a best-first search. Is there an analog of A for this
setting?

Exercise 29 (failure-exercise)
 

Devise a state space in which A using returns a suboptimal solution with an h(n) function that is
admissible but inconsistent.

Exercise 30
 

Accurate heuristics don’t necessarily reduce search time in the worst case. Given any depth d,
define a search problem with a goal node at depth d, and write a heuristic function such that
|h(n) − h
\*
(n)| ≤ O(log h
\*
(n)) but A∗ expands all nodes of depth less than d.

Exercise 31
 

The heuristic path algorithm Pohl:1977 is a best-first search in which the evaluation function is
f (n) = (2 − w)g(n) + wh(n) . For what values of w is this complete? For what values is it
optimal, assuming that h is admissible? What kind of search does this perform for w = 0, w = 1,

and w = 2?

Exercise 32
 
Consider the unbounded version of the regular 2D grid shown in . The start state is at the origin,
(0,0), and the goal state is at (x, y).
1. What is the branching factor b in this state space?
2. How many distinct states are there at depth k (for k > 0 )?

3. What is the maximum number of nodes expanded by breadth-first tree search?

4. What is the maximum number of nodes expanded by breadth-first graph search?
5. Is h = |u − x| + |v − y| an admissible heuristic for a state at (u, v)? Explain.
6. How many nodes are expanded by A graph search using h?
7. Does h remain admissible if some links are removed?
8. Does h remain admissible if some links are added between nonadjacent states?

Exercise 33
 

n vehicles occupy squares (1, 1) through (n, 1) (i.e., the bottom row) of an n × n grid. The
vehicles must be moved to the top row but in reverse order; so the vehicle i that starts in (i, 1)
must end up in (n − i + 1, n). On each time step, every one of the n vehicles can move one
square up, down, left, or right, or stay put; but if a vehicle stays put, one other adjacent vehicle
(but not more than one) can hop over it. Two vehicles cannot occupy the same square.
1. Calculate the size of the state space as a function of n.
2. Calculate the branching factor as a function of n.
3. Suppose that vehicle i is at (xi , yi ); write a nontrivial admissible heuristic hi for the number of
moves it will require to get to its goal location (n − i + 1, n), assuming no other vehicles are on
the grid.
4. Which of the following heuristics are admissible for the problem of moving all n vehicles to
their destinations? Explain.
1. ∑i=1 hi .
n

2. max{h1 , … , hn }.
3. min{h1 , … , hn }.

Exercise 34
 

Consider the problem of moving k knights from k starting squares s1 , … , sk to k goal squares
g1 , … , gk , on an unbounded chessboard, subject to the rule that no two knights can land on the
same square at the same time. Each action consists of moving up to k knights simultaneously.
We would like to complete the maneuver in the smallest number of actions.
1. What is the maximum branching factor in this state space, expressed as a function of k?
2. Suppose hi is an admissible heuristic for the problem of moving knight i to goal gi by itself.
Which of the following heuristics are admissible for the k-knight problem? Of those, which is the
best?
1. min{h1 , … , hk } .
2. max{h1 , … , hk }.
k
3. ∑i=1 hi .

3. Repeat (b) for the case where you are allowed to move only one knight at a time.

Exercise 35  

We saw on page that the straight-line distance heuristic leads greedy best-first search astray on
the problem of going from Iasi to Fagaras. However, the heuristic is perfect on the opposite
problem: going from Fagaras to Iasi. Are there problems for which the heuristic is misleading in
both directions?

Exercise 36  

Invent a heuristic function for the 8-puzzle that sometimes overestimates, and show how it can
lead to a suboptimal solution on a particular problem. (You can use a computer to help if you
want.) Prove that if h never overestimates by more than c, A using h returns a solution whose
cost exceeds that of the optimal solution by no more than c.

Exercise 37 (consistent-heuristic-exercise)  

Prove that if a heuristic is consistent, it must be admissible. Construct an admissible heuristic

that is not consistent.

Exercise 38 (tsp-mst-exercise)  

The traveling salesperson problem (TSP) can be solved with the minimum-spanning-tree (MST)
heuristic, which estimates the cost of completing a tour, given that a partial tour has already
been constructed. The MST cost of a set of cities is the smallest sum of the link costs of any tree
that connects all the cities.
1. Show how this heuristic can be derived from a relaxed version of the TSP.
2. Show that the MST heuristic dominates straight-line distance.
3. Write a problem generator for instances of the TSP where cities are represented by random
points in the unit square.
4. Find an efficient algorithm in the literature for constructing the MST, and use it with A graph
search to solve instances of the TSP.

Exercise 39 (Gaschnig-h-exercise)
 

On page , we defined the relaxation of the 8-puzzle in which a tile can move from square A to
square B if B is blank. The exact solution of this problem defines Gaschnig's
heuristic Gaschnig:1979. Explain why Gaschnig’s heuristic is at least as accurate as h1 (misplaced
tiles), and show cases where it is more accurate than both h1 and h2 (Manhattan distance).
Explain how to calculate Gaschnig’s heuristic efficiently.

Exercise 40
 

We gave two simple heuristics for the 8-puzzle: Manhattan distance and misplaced tiles. Several
heuristics in the literature purport to improve on this—see, for example, Nilsson:1971,
Mostow+Prieditis:1989, and Hansson+al:1992. Test these claims by implementing the heuristics
and comparing the performance of the resulting algorithms.