Informed Search Algorithms

Informed Search Algorithms

• So far we have talked about the uninformed search algorithms
which looked through search space for all possible solutions of the
problem without having any additional knowledge about search
space. But 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, however, 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.
Admissibility of the heuristic function is given as:
h(n) <= h*(n)
Here h(n) is heuristic cost, and 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
1.) Best-first Search Algorithm (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).
Were, h(n)= estimated cost from node n to the goal.
The greedy best first algorithm is implemented by the priority queue.
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.
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.
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.
2.) 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 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.
At each point in the search space, only those node is expanded which have
the lowest value of f(n), and the algorithm terminates when the goal node is
found.
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.
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)