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Search Algorithms in Artificial Intelligence

Search algorithms are one of the most important areas of Artificial Intelligence. This topic
will explain all about the search algorithms in AI.

Problem-solving agents:

In Artificial Intelligence, Search techniques are universal problem-solving methods. Rational

agents or Problem-solving agents in AI mostly used these search strategies or algorithms to
solve a specific problem and provide the best result. Problem-solving agents are the goal-
based agents and use atomic representation. In this topic, we will learn various problem-
solving search algorithms.

Search Algorithm Terminologies:

o Search: Searchingis a step by step procedure to solve a search-problem in a given

search space. A search problem can have three main factors:
. Search Space: Search space represents a set of possible solutions, which a
system may have.
a. Start State: It is a state from where agent begins the search.
b. Goal test: It is a function which observe the current state and returns whether
the goal state is achieved or not.
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:

The uninformed 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 five main types:

o Breadth-first search
o Uniform cost search
o Depth-first search
o Iterative deepening depth-first search
o Bidirectional Search

Informed 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

Uninformed Search Algorithms

Uninformed search is a class of general-purpose search algorithms which operates in

brute force-way. Uninformed search algorithms do not have additional information
about state or search space other than how to traverse the tree, so it is also called blind
search.
Following are the various types of uninformed search algorithms:

1. Breadth-first Search
2. Depth-first Search
3. Depth-limited Search
4. Iterative deepening depth-first search
5. Uniform cost search
6. Bidirectional Search

1. Breadth-first Search:

o 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.
o 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.
o The breadth-first search algorithm is an example of a general-graph search algorithm.
o Breadth-first search implemented using FIFO queue data structure.

Advantages:

o BFS will provide a solution if any solution exists.

o 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:

o It requires lots of memory since each level of the tree must be saved into memory to
expand the next level.
o 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:

1. 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.

2. Depth-first Search
 o Depth-first search isa recursive algorithm for traversing a tree or graph data structure.
o 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.
o DFS uses a stack data structure for its implementation.
o The process of the DFS algorithm is similar to the BFS algorithm.

Advantage:

o 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.
o It takes less time to reach to the goal node than BFS algorithm (if it traverses in the
right path).

Disadvantage:

o There is the possibility that many states keep re-occurring, and there is no guarantee
of finding the solution.
o 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.

3. Depth-Limited Search Algorithm:

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:

o Standard failure value: It indicates that problem does not have any solution.
o Cutoff failure value: It defines no solution for the problem within a given depth limit.

Advantages:

Depth-limited search is Memory efficient.

Disadvantages:

o Depth-limited search also has a disadvantage of incompleteness.

o 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.

4. Uniform-cost Search Algorithm:

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:

o Uniform cost search is optimal because at every state the path with the least cost is
chosen.

Disadvantages:

o 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 isO(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.

5. Iterative deepeningdepth-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:

o Itcombines the benefits of BFS and DFS search algorithm in terms of fast search and
memory efficiency.

Disadvantages:

o The main drawback of IDDFS is that it repeats all the work of the previous phase.

Example:

Following tree structure is showing the iterative deepening depth-first search. IDDFS
algorithm performs various iterations until it does not find the goal node. The iteration
performed by the algorithm is given as:
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 ifthe 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.

6. Bidirectional Search Algorithm:

Bidirectional search algorithm runs two simultaneous searches, one form 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
subgraphs 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:

o Bidirectional search is fast.

o Bidirectional search requires less memory

Disadvantages:

o Implementation of the bidirectional search tree is difficult.

o 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 Algorithms

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.
 1. 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:

o Best First Search Algorithm(Greedy search)

o 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.

1. f(n)= g(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:

 o Step 1: Place the starting node into the OPEN list.
o Step 2: If the OPEN list is empty, Stop and return failure.
o 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.
o Step 4: Expand the node n, and generate the successors of node n.
o 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.
o 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.
o Step 7: Return to Step 2.

Advantages:

o Best first search can switch between BFS and DFS by gaining the advantages of both
the algorithms.
o This algorithm is more efficient than BFS and DFS algorithms.

Disadvantages:

o It can behave as an unguided depth-first search in the worst case scenario.

o It can get stuck in a loop as DFS.
o 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(b m).

Space Complexity: The worst case space complexity of Greedy best first search is O(b m).
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.

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:

o A* search algorithm is the best algorithm than other search algorithms.

o A* search algorithm is optimal and complete.
o This algorithm can solve very complex problems.

Disadvantages:

o It does not always produce the shortest path as it mostly based on heuristics and
approximation.
o A* search algorithm has some complexity issues.
o 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:

o A* algorithm returns the path which occurred first, and it does not search for all
remaining paths.
o The efficiency of A* algorithm depends on the quality of heuristic.
o A* algorithm expands all nodes which satisfy the condition f(n)<="" li="">

Complete: A* algorithm is complete as long as:

o Branching factor is finite.

o Cost at every action is fixed.

Optimal: A* search algorithm is optimal if it follows below two conditions:

o 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.
o 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)

Local Search Algorithms and Optimization Problem

A local search algorithm completes its task by traversing on a single current node rather than
multiple paths and following the neighbors of that node generally.
Although local search algorithms are not systematic, still they have the following two
advantages:

 Local search algorithms use a very little or constant amount of memory as they
operate only on a single path.
 Most often, they find a reasonable solution in large or infinite state spaces where the
classical or systematic algorithms do not work.

Working of a Local search algorithm

Let's understand the working of a local search algorithm with the help of an example:
Consider the below state-space landscape having both:

 Location: It is defined by the state.

 Elevation: It is defined by the value of the objective function or heuristic cost
function.

The local search algorithm explores the above landscape by finding the following two points:

 Global Minimum: If the elevation corresponds to the cost, then the task is to find the
lowest valley, which is known as Global Minimum.
 Global Maxima: If the elevation corresponds to an objective function, then it finds
the highest peak which is called as Global Maxima. It is the highest point in the
valley.
We will understand the working of these points better in Hill-climbing search.
Below are some different types of local searches:

 Hill-climbing Search
 Simulated Annealing
 Local Beam Search

Hill Climbing Algorithm in AI

Hill Climbing Algorithm: Hill climbing search is a local search problem. The purpose of the
hill climbing search is to climb a hill and reach the topmost peak/ point of that hill. It is based
on the heuristic search technique where the person who is climbing up on the hill estimates
the direction which will lead him to the highest peak.
State-space Landscape of Hill climbing algorithm
To understand the concept of hill climbing algorithm, consider the below landscape
representing the goal state/peak and the current state of the climber. The topographical
regions shown in the figure can be defined as:

 Global Maximum: It is the highest point on the hill, which is the goal state.
 Local Maximum: It is the peak higher than all other peaks but lower than the global
maximum.
 Flat local maximum: It is the flat area over the hill where it has no uphill or
downhill. It is a saturated point of the hill.
 Shoulder: It is also a flat area where the summit is possible.
 Current state: It is the current position of the person.

Types of Hill climbing search algorithm

There are following types of hill-climbing search:
  Simple hill climbing
 Steepest-ascent hill climbing
 Stochastic hill climbing
 Random-restart hill climbing

Simple hill climbing search

Simple hill climbing is the simplest technique to climb a hill. The task is to reach the highest
peak of the mountain. Here, the movement of the climber depends on his move/steps. If he
finds his next step better than the previous one, he continues to move else remain in the same
state. This search focus only on his previous and next step.
Simple hill climbing Algorithm

1. Create a CURRENT node, NEIGHBOUR node, and a GOAL node.

2. If the CURRENT node=GOAL node, return GOAL and terminate the search.
3. Else CURRENT node<= NEIGHBOUR node, move ahead.
4. Loop until the goal is not reached or a point is not found.

Steepest-ascent hill climbing

Steepest-ascent hill climbing is different from simple hill climbing search. Unlike simple hill
climbing search, It considers all the successive nodes, compares them, and choose the node
which is closest to the solution. Steepest hill climbing search is similar to best-first
search because it focuses on each node instead of one.
Note: Both simple, as well as steepest-ascent hill climbing search, fails when there is no
closer node.
Steepest-ascent hill climbing algorithm

1. Create a CURRENT node and a GOAL node.

 2. If the CURRENT node=GOAL node, return GOAL and terminate the search.
3. Loop until a better node is not found to reach the solution.
4. If there is any better successor node present, expand it.
5. When the GOAL is attained, return GOAL and terminate.

Stochastic hill climbing

Stochastic hill climbing does not focus on all the nodes. It selects one node at random and
decides whether it should be expanded or search for a better one.
Random-restart hill climbing
Random-restart algorithm is based on try and try strategy. It iteratively searches the node
and selects the best one at each step until the goal is not found. The success depends most
commonly on the shape of the hill. If there are few plateaus, local maxima, and ridges, it
becomes easy to reach the destination.
Limitations of Hill climbing algorithm
Hill climbing algorithm is a fast and furious approach. It finds the solution state rapidly
because it is quite easy to improve a bad state. But, there are following limitations of this
search:

 Local Maxima: It is that peak of the mountain which is highest than all its
neighboring states but lower than the global maxima. It is not the goal peak because
there is another peak higher than it.

 Plateau: It is a flat surface area where no uphill exists. It becomes difficult for the
climber to decide that in which direction he should move to reach the goal point.
Sometimes, the person gets lost in the flat area.
  Ridges: It is a challenging problem where the person finds two or more local maxima
of the same height commonly. It becomes difficult for the person to navigate the right
point and stuck to that point itself.

Simulated Annealing
Simulated annealing is similar to the hill climbing algorithm. It works on the current
situation. It picks a random move instead of picking the best move. If the move leads to the
improvement of the current situation, it is always accepted as a step towards the solution
state, else it accepts the move having a probability less than 1. This search technique was
first used in 1980 to solve VLSI layout problems. It is also applied for factory scheduling
and other large optimization tasks.
Local Beam Search
Local beam search is quite different from random-restart search. It keeps track of k states
instead of just one. It selects k randomly generated states, and expand them at each step. If
any state is a goal state, the search stops with success. Else it selects the best k successors
from the complete list and repeats the same process. In random-restart search where each
search process runs independently, but in local beam search, the necessary information is
shared between the parallel search processes.
Disadvantages of Local Beam search

 This search can suffer from a lack of diversity among the k states.
 It is an expensive version of hill climbing search.
  search with non-deterministic actions

Local search in continuous spaces

The states are defined by n variables (defined by an n-dimensional vector of variables x.)
Gradient of the objective function ▽f

Local expression for the gradient

Can perform steepest-ascent hill climbing by updating the current state according to the
formula x ← x + α▽f(x) , αis the step size (a small constant).
If the objection function f is not available in a differentiable form, use empirical gradient
search.
Searching with nondeterministic actions
When the environment is either partially observable or nondeterministic (or both), the future
percepts cannot be determined in advance, and the agent’s future actions will depend on those
future percepts.
Nondeterministic problems:
Transition model is defined by RESULTS function that returns a set of possible outcome
states;
Solution is not a sequence but a contingency plan (strategy),
e.g.

[Suck, if State = 5then [Right, Suck] else []];

In nondeterministic environments, agents can apply AND-OR search to generate contingent

plans that reach the goal regardless of which outcomes occur during execution.

AND-OR search trees

OR nodes: In a deterministic environment, the only branching is introduced by the agent’s
own choices in each state, we call these nodes OR nodes.
AND nodes: In a nondeterministic environment, branching is also introduced by the
environment’s choice of outcome for each action, we call these nodes AND nodes.
AND-OR tree: OR nodes and AND nodes alternate. States nodes are OR nodes where some
action must be chosen. At the AND nodes (shown as circles), every outcome must be
handled.
A solution (shown in bold lines) for an AND-OR search problem is a subtree that
1) has a goal node at every leaf;
2) specifies one action at each of its OR nodes;
3) includes every outcome branch at each of its AND nodes.