EXAMPLE
PROBLEMS
The problem-solving approach has been applied
to a vast array of task environment. We list some
of the best known here, distinguishing between:
toy problem
Real-world problem
A toy problem is intended to illustrate or exercise
various problem-solving methods. It can be given a
concise, exact description. This means that it can be
used easily by different researchers to compare the
performance of algorithms.
A real-world problem is one whose solutions people
actually care about. They tend not to have a single
agreed-upon description, but we will attempt to give the
general flavour of their formulations.
TOY PROBLEMS
The first example we will examine is the vacuum world, this can be
formulated as a problem as follows:
• States: The agent is in one of two locations, each of which might or might
not contain dirt.
• Initial state: Any state can be designated as the initial state.
• Successor function: This generates the legal states that result from trying
the three actions (left, right, and suck).
• Goal test: This checks whether all the squares are clean.
• Path cost: Each step costs 1, so the path cost is the number of steps in the
path.
Compared with the real-world problems, this toy problem has a discrete
locations, discrete dirt, reliable cleaning, and it never gets messed up once
cleaned. One important thing to note is that the state is determined by both
the agent location and the dirt locations.
There are two main kinds of formulation:
An incremental formulation involves operators that augment the state
description, starting with an empty state.
In a complete-state formulation, the path cost is of no interest because
only the final state counts.
REAL-WORLD PROBLEMS
Route-finding problem is defined in terms of specified locations and transitions along links
between them. Route-finding algorithms are used in a variety of applications, such as routing in
computer networks military operations planning, and airline travel planning systems. These
problems are typically complex to specify. Consider a simplified example of an airline travel
problem specified as follows:
• States: Each is represented by a location (e.g., an airport) and the current time.
• Initial state: This is specified by the problem.
• Successor function: This returns the states resulting from taking any scheduled flight, leaving
later than the current time plus the within-airport transit time, from the current airport to
another.
• Goal test: Are we at the destination by some prespecified time?
• Path cost: This depends on a monetary cost, waiting time, flight time, customs and
immigration procedures, seat quality, time of day, type of airplane, frequent-flyer mileage
awards, and so on.
Touring problems are closely related to route-finding problems, but with an important difference. As with
route-finding, the actions correspond to trips between adjacent cities. The state space, however, is quite
different. Each state must include not just the current location but also the set of cities and agent has visited.
The travelling salesperson problem (TSP) is a touring problem in which each city must be visited exactly
once. The aim is to find the shortest tour. In addition to planning trips for travelling salespersons, these
algorithms have been used for tasks such as planning movements of automatic circuit-board drills and of
stocking machines on shop floors.
VLSI layout
VLSI (Very-large –scale-integration) is the process of creating integrated circuits by combining thousands
of transistor-based circuits into a single chip.
The design of silicon chips is one of the most complex engineering design tasks currently undertaken, and we
can give only a brief sketch here. A typical VLSI chip can have as many as a million gates, and the positioning
and connections of every gate are crucial to the successful operation of the chip.
Two of the most difficult tasks are cell layout and channel routing. These come after the components and
connections of the circuit have been fixed; the purpose is to lay out the circuit on the chip so as to minimize
area and connection lengths, thereby maximizing speed. In cell layout, the primitive components of the circuit
are grouped into cells, each of which performs some recognized function. Each cell has a fixed footprint (size
and shape) and requires a certain number of connections to each of the other cells. The aim is to place the cells
on the chip so that they do not overlap and so that there is room for the connecting wires to be placed between
the cells. Channel routing finds a specific route for each wire using the gaps between the cells. These search
problems are extremely complex, but definitely worth solving.
Robot navigation is a generalization of the route-finding problem described earlier. Rather than a
discrete set of routes, a robot can move in a continuous space with (in principle) an infinite set of possible
actions and states. For a simple, circular robot moving on a flat surface, the space 6 Strictly speaking, this is
the travelling salesperson optimization problem; the TSP itself asks if a tour exists with cost less than some
constant. When the robot has arms and legs that must also be controlled, the search space becomes many-
dimensional. Advanced techniques are required just to make the search space finite. In addition to the
complexity of the problem, real robots must also deal with errors in their sensor readings and motor
controls.
Automatic Assembly sequencing
Automatic assembly of complex objects by a robot was first demonstrated by FREDDY the robot
(Michie, 1972). Progress since then has been slow but sure, to the point where assembly of objects such as
electric motors is economically feasible. In assembly problems, the problem is to find an order in which to
assemble the parts of some object. If the wrong order is chosen, there will be no way to add some part later
in the sequence without undoing some of the work already done. Checking a step in the sequence for
feasibility is a complex geometrical search problem closely related to robot navigation. Thus, the
generation of legal successors is the expensive part of assembly sequencing, and the use of informed
algorithms to reduce search is essential.
Another important assembly problem is protein design, in which the goal is to find a sequence of
amino acids that will fold a three-dimentional protein with the right properties to cure some disease.
In recent years there has been increased demand for software robots that perform Internet
searching, looking for answers to questions, for related information, or for shopping deals. This is a good
application for search techniques, because it is easy to conceptualize the Internet as a graph of nodes
(pages) connected by links.
END
