Solving Problems by Searching

Dr. Sonam Mittal

BKBIET, Pilani
 Problem Solving Agents
• Problem solving agent
– A kind of “goal based” agent
– Finds sequences of actions that lead to
desirable states.

• The algorithms are uninformed

– No extra information about the problem other
than the definition
• No extra information
• No heuristics (rules)
 Search Algorithm Terminologies
Search: Searching is a step by step procedure to solve a
search-problem in a given search space. A search problem can
have three main factors:

Four general steps in problem solving:

•Goal formulation
– What are the successful world states
•Problem formulation
– What actions and states to consider given the goal
•Search
– Examine different possible sequences of actions that lead to states of
known value and then choose the best sequence
•Execute
– Perform actions on the basis of the solution
•Search tree: A tree representation of search problem is called
Search tree. The root of the search tree is the root node which is
corresponding to the initial state.
•Actions: It gives the description of all the available actions to the
agent.
•Transition model: A description of what each action do, can be
represented as a transition model.
•Path Cost: It is a function which assigns a numeric cost to each
path.
•Solution: It is an action sequence which leads from the start node
to the goal node.
•Optimal Solution: If a solution has the lowest cost among all
solutions.
 Properties of Search Algorithms
Following are the four essential properties of search algorithms to
compare the efficiency of these algorithms:
•Completeness: A search algorithm is said to be complete if it guarantees
to return a solution if at least any solution exists for any random input.
•Optimality: If a solution found for an algorithm is guaranteed to be the
best solution (lowest path cost) among all other solutions, then such a
solution for is said to be an optimal solution.
•Time Complexity: Time complexity is a measure of time for an algorithm
to complete its task.
•Space Complexity: It is the maximum storage space required at any
point during the search, as the complexity of the problem.
 Types of Search Algorithms
Based on the search problems we can classify the search algorithms into
uninformed (Blind search) search and informed search (Heuristic search)
algorithms.
 Uninformed/Blind Search
• Does not contain any domain knowledge such as closeness, the location
of the goal.
• It operates in a brute-force way as it only includes information about
how to traverse the tree and how to identify leaf and goal nodes.
Uninformed search applies a way in which search tree is searched
without any information about the search space like initial state
operators and test for the goal, so it is also called blind search. It
examines each node of the tree until it achieves the goal node.
It can be divided into six main types:
• Breadth-first search
• Uniform cost search
• Depth-first search
• Depth Limited Search
• Iterative deepening depth-first search
• Bidirectional Search
 Informed/Blind Search
• Informed search algorithms use domain knowledge. In an informed
search, problem information is available which can guide the search.
• Informed search strategies can find a solution more efficiently than an
uninformed search strategy.
• Informed search is also called a Heuristic search.
• A heuristic is a way which might not always be guaranteed for best
solutions but guaranteed to find a good solution in reasonable time.
• Informed search can solve much complex problem which could not be
solved in another way.
• An example of informed search algorithms is a traveling salesman
problem.
1. Greedy Search
2. A* Search
 Breadth First Search
• Breadth-first search is the most common search strategy for traversing a
tree or graph. This algorithm searches breadthwise in a tree or graph, so
it is called breadth-first search.
• BFS algorithm starts searching from the root node of the tree and
expands all successor node at the current level before moving to nodes
of next level.
• The breadth-first search algorithm is an example of a general-graph
search algorithm.
• Breadth-first search implemented using FIFO queue data structure.

Advantages:
•BFS will provide a solution if any solution exists.
•If there are more than one solutions for a given problem, then BFS will provide
the minimal solution which requires the least number of steps.
Disadvantages:
•It requires lots of memory since each level of the tree must be saved into memory
to expand the next level.
•BFS needs lots of time if the solution is far away from the root node.
Example:
In the below tree structure, we have shown the traversing of the tree using
BFS algorithm from the root node S to goal node K. BFS search algorithm
traverse in layers, so it will follow the path which is shown by the dotted
arrow, and the traversed path will be:

S---> A--->B---->C--->D---->G--->H--->E---->F---->I---->K
• Time Complexity: Time Complexity of BFS algorithm
can be obtained by the number of nodes traversed in BFS
until the shallowest Node. Where the d= depth of
shallowest solution and b is a node at every state.
T (b) = 1+b2+b3+.......+ bd= O (bd)
• Space Complexity: Space complexity of BFS algorithm is
given by the Memory size of frontier which is O(bd).
• Completeness: BFS is complete, which means if the
shallowest goal node is at some finite depth, then BFS
will find a solution.
• Optimality: BFS is optimal if path cost is a
non-decreasing function of the depth of the node.
 Depth First Search
• Depth-first search is a recursive algorithm for traversing a tree or graph
data structure.
• It is called the depth-first search because it starts from the root node
and follows each path to its greatest depth node before moving to the
next path.
• DFS uses a stack data structure for its implementation.
• The process of the DFS algorithm is similar to the BFS algorithm.

Advantage:
•DFS requires very less memory as it only needs to store a stack of the nodes on
the path from root node to the current node.
•It takes less time to reach to the goal node than BFS algorithm (if it traverses in
the right path).
Disadvantage:
•There is the possibility that many states keep re-occurring, and there is no
guarantee of finding the solution.
•DFS algorithm goes for deep down searching and sometime it may go to the
infinite loop.
Example:
In the below search tree, we have shown the flow of depth-first search, and
it will follow the order as:
Root node--->Left node ----> right node.
It will start searching from root node S, and traverse A, then B, then D and
E, after traversing E, it will backtrack the tree as E has no other successor
and still goal node is not found. After backtracking it will traverse node C
and then G, and here it will terminate as it found goal node.
• Completeness: DFS search algorithm is complete within
finite state space as it will expand every node within a
limited search tree.
• Time Complexity: Time complexity of DFS will be
equivalent to the node traversed by the algorithm. It is given
by:
T(n)= 1+ n2+ n3 +.........+ nm=O(nm)
Where, m= maximum depth of any node and this can be
much larger than d (Shallowest solution depth)
• Space Complexity: DFS algorithm needs to store only single
path from the root node, hence space complexity of DFS is
equivalent to the size of the fringe set, which is O(bm).
• Optimal: DFS search algorithm is non-optimal, as it may
generate a large number of steps or high cost to reach to the
goal node.
 Depth Limited Search
• A depth-limited search algorithm is similar to depth-first search with a
predetermined limit.
• Depth-limited search can solve the drawback of the infinite path in the
Depth-first search.
• In this algorithm, the node at the depth limit will treat as it has no
successor nodes further.
• Depth-limited search can be terminated with two Conditions of failure:
•Standard failure value: It indicates that problem does not have any
solution.
•Cutoff failure value: It defines no solution for the problem within a
given depth limit.
Advantages:
• Depth-limited search is Memory efficient.
Disadvantages:
• Depth-limited search also has a disadvantage of incompleteness.
• It may not be optimal if the problem has more than one solution.
Example:
• Completeness: DLS search algorithm is
complete if the solution is above the
depth-limit.
• Time Complexity: Time complexity of DLS
algorithm is O(bℓ).
• Space Complexity: Space complexity of DLS
algorithm is O(b×ℓ).
• Optimal: Depth-limited search can be viewed
as a special case of DFS, and it is also not
optimal even if ℓ>d.
 Uniform Cost Search
• Uniform-cost search is a searching algorithm used for traversing a
weighted tree or graph.
• This algorithm comes into play when a different cost is available for
each edge.
• The primary goal of the uniform-cost search is to find a path to the goal
node which has the lowest cumulative cost. Uniform-cost search
expands nodes according to their path costs form the root node.
• It can be used to solve any graph/tree where the optimal cost is in
demand. A uniform-cost search algorithm is implemented by the
priority queue.
• It gives maximum priority to the lowest cumulative cost.
• Uniform cost search is equivalent to BFS algorithm if the path cost of all
edges is the same.
Advantages:
•Uniform cost search is optimal because at every state the path with the least cost is chosen.
Disadvantages:
•It does not care about the number of steps involve in searching and only concerned about path
cost. Due to which this algorithm may be stuck in an infinite loop.
Example:
Completeness: Uniform-cost search is complete, such as if
there is a solution, UCS will find it.
Time Complexity: Let C* is Cost of the optimal solution,
and ε is each step to get closer to the goal node. Then the
number of steps is = C*/ε+1. Here we have taken +1, as we start
from state 0 and end to C*/ε.
Hence, the worst-case time complexity of Uniform-cost search
is O(b1 + [C*/ε])/.
Space Complexity: The same logic is for space complexity so,
the worst-case space complexity of Uniform-cost search is O(b1
+ [C*/ε]
).
Optimal: Uniform-cost search is always optimal as it only
selects a path with the lowest path cost.
 Iterative Deepening Depth First Search
• The iterative deepening algorithm is a combination of DFS and BFS
algorithms. This search algorithm finds out the best depth limit and
does it by gradually increasing the limit until a goal is found.
• This algorithm performs depth-first search up to a certain "depth limit",
and it keeps increasing the depth limit after each iteration until the goal
node is found.
• This Search algorithm combines the benefits of Breadth-first search's
fast search and depth-first search's memory efficiency.
• The iterative search algorithm is useful uninformed search when search
space is large, and depth of goal node is unknown.
Advantages:
It combines the benefits of BFS and DFS search algorithm in terms of fast
search and memory efficiency.
Disadvantages:
The main drawback of IDDFS is that it repeats all the work of the previous
phase.
1'st Iteration-----> A
2'nd Iteration----> A, B, C
3'rd Iteration------>A, B, D, E, C, F, G
4'th Iteration------>A, B, D, H, I, E, C, F, K, G
In the fourth iteration, the algorithm will find the goal node.
Completeness: This algorithm is complete is if the
branching factor is finite.
Time Complexity: Let's suppose b is the branching
factor and depth is d then the worst-case time
complexity is O(bd).
Space Complexity: The space complexity of IDDFS will
be O(bd).
Optimal: IDDFS algorithm is optimal if path cost is a
non- decreasing function of the depth of the node.
 Bidirectional Search
• Bidirectional search algorithm runs two simultaneous searches, one
from initial state called as forward-search and other from goal
node called as backward-search, to find the goal node.
• Bidirectional search replaces one single search graph with two small sub
graphs in which one starts the search from an initial vertex and other
starts from goal vertex. The search stops when these two graphs
intersect each other.
• Bidirectional search can use search techniques such as BFS, DFS, DLS,
etc.
Advantages:
Bidirectional search is fast.
Bidirectional search requires less memory
Disadvantages:
Implementation of the bidirectional search tree is difficult.
In bidirectional search, one should know the goal state in advance.
Example:
In the below search tree, bidirectional search algorithm is applied. This
algorithm divides one graph/tree into two sub-graphs. It starts traversing
from node 1 in the forward direction and starts from goal node 16 in the
backward direction.
The algorithm terminates at node 9 where two searches meet.
Completeness: Bidirectional Search is complete if we
use BFS in both searches.

Time Complexity: Time complexity of bidirectional

search using BFS is O(bd).

Space Complexity: Space complexity of bidirectional

search is O(bd).

Optimal: Bidirectional search is Optimal.

 Informed Search Algorithm
• Informed search algorithm contains an array of knowledge such as how
far we are from the goal, path cost, how to reach to goal node, etc. This
knowledge help agents to explore less to the search space and find more
efficiently the goal node.
• The informed search algorithm is more useful for large search
space. Informed search algorithm uses the idea of heuristic, so it is
also called Heuristic search.
Heuristics function: Heuristic is a function which is used in Informed
Search, and it finds the most promising path.
•It takes the current state of the agent as its input and produces the
estimation of how close agent is from the goal.
•The heuristic method, might not always give the best solution, but it
guaranteed to find a good solution in reasonable time.
•Heuristic function estimates how close a state is to the goal.
•It is represented by h(n), and it calculates the cost of an optimal path
between the pair of states. The value of the heuristic function is
always positive.
 Heuristic Function

h(n) <= h*(n)

Where
h(n) is heuristic cost
h*(n) is the estimated cost.
Hence heuristic cost should be less than or equal to
the estimated cost.
 Pure Heuristic Search
• Pure heuristic search is the simplest form of heuristic search
algorithms.
• It expands nodes based on their heuristic value h(n).
• It maintains two lists, OPEN and CLOSED list.
• In the CLOSED list, it places those nodes which have already
expanded and in the OPEN list, it places nodes which have yet not
been expanded.
• On each iteration, each node n with the lowest heuristic value is
expanded and generates all its successors and n is placed to the
closed list.
• The algorithm continues unit a goal state is found.
• In the informed search we will discuss two main algorithms which
are given below:
1. Best First Search Algorithm(Greedy search)
2. A* Search Algorithm
 Best First Search (Greedy Search)
• Greedy best-first search algorithm always selects the path which
appears best at that moment.
• It is the combination of depth-first search and breadth-first search
algorithms.
• It uses the heuristic function and search.
• Best-first search allows us to take the advantages of both
algorithms.
• With the help of best-first search, at each step, we can choose the
most promising node.
• In the best first search algorithm, we expand the node which is
closest to the goal node and the closest cost is estimated by
heuristic function, i.e.
f(n)= h(n)
h(n)= estimated cost from node n to the goal.
 Best First Search Algorithm
Step 1: Place the starting node into the OPEN list.

Step 2: If the OPEN list is empty, Stop and return failure.

Step 3: Remove the node n, from the OPEN list which has the lowest value
of h(n), and places it in the CLOSED list.

Step 4: Expand the node n, and generate the successors of node n.

Step 5: Check each successor of node n, and find whether any node is a
goal node or not. If any successor node is goal node, then return success
and terminate the search, else proceed to Step 6.

Step 6: For each successor node, algorithm checks for evaluation function
f(n), and then check if the node has been in either OPEN or CLOSED list. If
the node has not been in both list, then add it to the OPEN list.

Step 7: Return to Step 2.

 Algorithm

•Let Open be a priority queue containing initial state

Loop
If open is empty return failure

Otherwise remove the first node (open)

If node is a goal
Then return the path from initial to node

Else generate all successor of node

and put newly generated node into open
According to their f values
End loop
 Best First Search Algorithm
Advantages:
•Best first search can switch between BFS and DFS by gaining the
advantages of both the algorithms.
•This algorithm is more efficient than BFS and DFS algorithms.
Disadvantages:
•It can behave as an unguided depth-first search in the worst case
scenario.
•It can get stuck in a loop as DFS.
•This algorithm is not optimal.
Example:
Consider the below search problem, and we will traverse it using greedy
best-first search. At each iteration, each node is expanded using evaluation
function f(n)=h(n) , which is given in the below table.
In this search example, we are using two lists which
are OPEN and CLOSED Lists. Following are the iteration for traversing the
above example.

Expand the nodes of S and put in

the CLOSED list

•Initialization: Open [A, B], Closed

[S]
•Iteration 1: Open [A], Closed [S, B]
•Iteration 2: Open [E, F, A], Closed
[S, B]
: Open [E, A], Closed [S,
B, F]
•Iteration 3: Open [I, G, E, A], Closed
[S, B, F]
: Open [I, E, A], Closed
[S, B, F, G]

Hence the final solution path will

be: S----> B----->F----> G
Time Complexity: The worst case time complexity of Greedy best
first search is O(bm).
Space Complexity: The worst case space complexity of Greedy
best first search is O(bm). Where, m is the maximum depth of the
search space.
Complete: Greedy best-first search is also incomplete, even if the
given state space is finite.
Optimal: Greedy best first search algorithm is not optimal.
 A* Search Algorithm
• A* search is the most commonly known form of best-first search. It uses
heuristic function h(n), and cost to reach the node n from the start state g(n).
• It has combined features of Uniform Cost Search (UCS) and greedy best-first
search, by which it solve the problem efficiently.
• A* search algorithm finds the shortest path through the search space using the
heuristic function.
• This search algorithm expands less search tree and provides optimal result
faster. A* algorithm is similar to UCS except that it uses g(n)+h(n) instead of
g(n).
• In A* search algorithm, we use search heuristic as well as the cost to reach the
node. Hence we can combine both costs as following, and this sum is called as
a fitness number.
Algorithm of A* search:
Step1: Place the starting node in the OPEN list.
Step 2: Check if the OPEN list is empty or not, if the list is empty
then return failure and stops.
Step 3: Select the node from the OPEN list which has the smallest
value of evaluation function (g+h), if node n is goal node then
return success and stop, otherwise
Step 4: Expand node n and generate all of its successors, and put
n into the closed list. For each successor n', check whether n' is
already in the OPEN or CLOSED list, if not then compute
evaluation function for n' and place into Open list.
Step 5: Else if node n' is already in OPEN and CLOSED, then it
should be attached to the back pointer which reflects the lowest
g(n') value.
Step 6: Return to Step 2.
Advantages:
•A* search algorithm is the best algorithm than other search
algorithms.
•A* search algorithm is optimal and complete.
•This algorithm can solve very complex problems.
Disadvantages:
•It does not always produce the shortest path as it mostly based on
heuristics and approximation.
•A* search algorithm has some complexity issues.
•The main drawback of A* is memory requirement as it keeps all
generated nodes in the memory, so it is not practical for various
large-scale problems.
Example:
In this example, we will traverse the given graph using the A* algorithm.
The heuristic value of all states is given in the below table so we will
calculate the f(n) of each state using the formula f(n)= g(n) + h(n), where
g(n) is the cost to reach any node from start state.
Here we will use OPEN and CLOSED list.
Solution

Initialization: {(S, 5)}

Iteration1: {(S--> A, 4), (S-->G, 10)}

Iteration2: {(S--> A-->C, 4), (S-->

A-->B, 7), (S-->G, 10)}

Iteration3: {(S--> A-->C--->G, 6), (S-->

A-->C--->D, 11), (S--> A-->B, 7), (S-->G,
10)}

Iteration 4 will give the final result,

as S--->A--->C--->G it provides the
optimal path with cost 6.
Points to remember:
•A* algorithm returns the path which occurred first, and it does not search for all
remaining paths.
•The efficiency of A* algorithm depends on the quality of heuristic.
•A* algorithm expands all nodes which satisfy the condition f(n)<="" li="">
Complete: A* algorithm is complete as long as:
•Branching factor is finite.
•Cost at every action is fixed.
Optimal: A* search algorithm is optimal if it follows below two conditions:
•Admissible: the first condition requires for optimality is that h(n) should be an
admissible heuristic for A* tree search. An admissible heuristic is optimistic in
nature.
•Consistency: Second required condition is consistency for only A* graph-search.
If the heuristic function is admissible, then A* tree search will always find the least
cost path.
•Time Complexity: The time complexity of A* search algorithm depends on
heuristic function, and the number of nodes expanded is exponential to the depth
of solution d. So the time complexity is O(b^d), where b is the branching factor.
•Space Complexity: The space complexity of A* search algorithm is O(b^d)
 Hill Climbing Algorithm in Artificial Intelligence
•Hill climbing algorithm is a local search algorithm which continuously
moves in the direction of increasing elevation/value to find the peak of
the mountain or best solution to the problem. It terminates when it
reaches a peak value where no neighbour has a higher value.
•Hill climbing algorithm is a technique which is used for optimizing the
mathematical problems. One of the widely discussed examples of Hill
climbing algorithm is Traveling-salesman Problem in which we need to
minimize the distance travelled by the salesman.
•It is also called greedy local search as it only looks to its good immediate
neighbour state and not beyond that.
•A node of hill climbing algorithm has two components which are state
and value.
•Hill Climbing is mostly used when a good heuristic is available.
•In this algorithm, we don't need to maintain and handle the search tree or
graph as it only keeps a single current state.
Features of Hill Climbing:
Following are some main features of Hill Climbing Algorithm:
•Generate and Test variant: Hill Climbing is the variant of Generate and
Test method. The Generate and Test method produce feedback which
helps to decide which direction to move in the search space.
•Greedy approach: Hill-climbing algorithm search moves in the direction
which optimizes the cost.
•No backtracking: It does not backtrack the search space, as it does not
remember the previous states.
 State-space Diagram for Hill Climbing
• The state-space landscape is a graphical representation of the
hill-climbing algorithm which is showing a graph between various
states of algorithm and Objective function/Cost.
• On Y-axis we have taken the function which can be an objective
function or cost function, and state-space on the x-axis. If the
function on Y-axis is cost then, the goal of search is to find the global
minimum and local minimum. If the function of Y-axis is Objective
function, then the goal of the search is to find the global maximum
and local maximum.
Different regions in the state space landscape:

•Local Maximum: Local maximum is a state which is better than its

neighbour states, but there is also another state which is higher than it.

•Global Maximum: Global maximum is the best possible state of state

space landscape. It has the highest value of objective function.

•Current state: It is a state in a landscape diagram where an agent is

currently present.

•Flat local maximum: It is a flat space in the landscape where all the
neighbour states of current states have the same value.

•Shoulder: It is a plateau region which has an uphill edge

 Types of Hill Climbing Algorithm
• Simple hill Climbing
• Steepest-Ascent hill-climbing
• Stochastic hill Climbing
1. Simple Hill Climbing:
Simple hill climbing is the simplest way to implement a hill climbing
algorithm. It only evaluates the neighbour node state at a time and
selects the first one which optimizes current cost and set it as a
current state. It only checks it's one successor state, and if it finds better
than the current state, then move else be in the same state. This
algorithm has the following features:
•Less time consuming
•Less optimal solution and the solution is not guaranteed
Algorithm for Simple Hill Climbing:
•Step 1: Evaluate the initial state, if it is goal state then return success and
Stop.

•Step 2: Loop Until a solution is found or there is no new operator left to

apply.

•Step 3: Select and apply an operator to the current state.

•Step 4: Check new state:

• If it is goal state, then return success and quit.

• Else if it is better than the current state then assign new state as a
current state.

• Else if not better than the current state, then return to step2.

•Step 5: Exit.
2. Steepest-Ascent hill climbing:
The steepest-Ascent algorithm is a variation of simple hill climbing algorithm.
This algorithm examines all the neighbouring nodes of the current state and
selects one neighbour node which is closest to the goal state. This algorithm
consumes more time as it searches for multiple neighbours
Algorithm for Steepest-Ascent hill climbing:
•Step 1: Evaluate the initial state, if it is goal state then return success and stop, else make
current state as initial state.
•Step 2: Loop until a solution is found or the current state does not change.
• Let SUCC be a state such that any successor of the current state will be better than
it.
• For each operator that applies to the current state:
• Apply the new operator and generate a new state.
• Evaluate the new state.
• If it is goal state, then return it and quit, else compare it to the SUCC.
• If it is better than SUCC, then set new state as SUCC.
• If the SUCC is better than the current state, then set current state to SUCC.
•Step 5: Exit
3. Stochastic hill climbing:
Stochastic hill climbing does not examine for all its neighbour before
moving. Rather, this search algorithm selects one neighbour node at
random and decides whether to choose it as a current state or examine
another state.

Problems in Hill Climbing Algorithm:

1. Local Maximum: A local maximum is a peak state in the landscape
which is better than each of its neighbouring states, but there is another
state also present which is higher than the local maximum.
Solution: Backtracking technique can be a solution of the local
maximum in state space landscape. Create a list of the promising path so
that the algorithm can backtrack the search space and explore other
paths as well.
2. Plateau: A plateau is the flat area of the search space in which all the
neighbour states of the current state contains the same value, because of
this algorithm does not find any best direction to move. A hill-climbing
search might be lost in the plateau area.

Solution: The solution for the plateau is to take big steps or very little
steps while searching, to solve the problem. Randomly select a state
which is far away from the current state so it is possible that the
algorithm could find non-plateau region.
3. Ridges: A ridge is a special form of the local maximum. It has an area
which is higher than its surrounding areas, but itself has a slope, and
cannot be reached in a single move.

Solution: With the use of bidirectional search, or by moving in different

directions, we can improve this problem.
Simulated Annealing:
A hill-climbing algorithm which never makes a move towards a lower value
guaranteed to be incomplete because it can get stuck on a local maximum. And if
algorithm applies a random walk, by moving a successor, then it may complete
but not efficient. Simulated Annealing is an algorithm which yields both
efficiency and completeness.

In mechanical term Annealing is a process of hardening a metal or glass to a

high temperature then cooling gradually, so this allows the metal to reach a
low-energy crystalline state. The same process is used in simulated annealing in
which the algorithm picks a random move, instead of picking the best move. If
the random move improves the state, then it follows the same path. Otherwise,
the algorithm follows the path which has a probability of less than 1 or it moves
downhill and chooses another path.
 Means-Ends Analysis in Artificial Intelligence
We have studied the strategies which can reason either in forward or
backward, but a mixture of the two directions is appropriate for solving a
complex and large problem. Such a mixed strategy, make it possible that
first to solve the major part of a problem and then go back and solve the
small problems arise during combining the big parts of the problem. Such
a technique is called Means-Ends Analysis.

Means-Ends Analysis is problem-solving techniques used in Artificial

intelligence for limiting search in AI programs.

It is a mixture of Backward and forward search technique.

The MEA technique was first introduced in 1961 by Allen Newell, and
Herbert A. Simon in their problem-solving computer program, which was
named as General Problem Solver (GPS).

The MEA analysis process centered on the evaluation of the difference

between the current state and goal state.
How means-ends analysis Works
The means-ends analysis process can be applied recursively for a
problem. It is a strategy to control search in problem-solving.
Following are the main Steps which describes the working of MEA
technique for solving a problem.

First, evaluate the difference between Initial State and final State.

Select the various operators which can be applied for each

difference.

Apply the operator at each difference, which reduces the difference

between the current state and goal state.
Operator Sub-goaling
•In the MEA process, we detect the differences between the current state
and goal state.

•Once these differences occur, then we can apply an operator to reduce the
differences.

•But sometimes it is possible that an operator cannot be applied to the

current state.

•So we create the sub problem of the current state, in which operator can
be applied, such type of backward chaining in which operators are
selected, and then sub goals are set up to establish the preconditions of
the operator is called Operator Sub-goaling.
Algorithm for Means-Ends Analysis:
Let's we take Current state as CURRENT and Goal State as GOAL, then following
are the steps for the MEA algorithm.
Step 1: Compare CURRENT to GOAL, if there are no differences between both
then return Success and Exit.
Step 2: Else, select the most significant difference and reduce it by doing the
following steps until the success or failure occurs.
Select a new operator O which is applicable for the current difference, and if
there is no such operator, then signal failure.
Attempt to apply operator O to CURRENT. Make a description of two states.
i) O-Start, a state in which O?s preconditions are satisfied.
ii) O-Result, the state that would result if O were applied In O-start.
If
(First-Part <------ MEA (CURRENT, O-START)
And
(LAST-Part <----- MEA (O-Result, GOAL), are successful, then signal Success
and return the result of combining FIRST-PART, O, and LAST-PART.
The above-discussed algorithm is more suitable for a simple problem and not
adequate for solving complex problems.
Example of Mean-Ends Analysis:
Let's take an example where we know the initial state and goal state as
given below. In this problem, we need to get the goal state by finding
differences between the initial state and goal state and applying
operators.

Solution:
To solve the above problem, we will first find the differences between
initial states and goal states, and for each difference, we will generate a
new state and will apply the operators. The operators we have for this
problem are:
•Move
•Delete
•Expand
1. Evaluating the initial state: In the first step, we will evaluate the
initial state and will compare the initial and Goal state to find the
differences between both states.

2. Applying Delete operator: As we can check the first difference is that

in goal state there is no dot symbol which is present in the initial state, so,
first we will apply the Delete operator to remove this dot.
3. Applying Move Operator: After applying the Delete operator, the new
state occurs which we will again compare with goal state. After
comparing these states, there is another difference that is the square is
outside the circle, so, we will apply the Move Operator.

4. Applying Expand Operator: Now a new state is generated in the third

step, and we will compare this state with the goal state. After comparing
the states there is still one difference which is the size of the square, so,
we will apply Expand operator, and finally, it will generate the goal state.