Introduction to Hill

Climbing
Artificial Intelligence

Dr. Fawad Salam Khan

Hill Climbing Search
• 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 minimise the distance traveled by the salesman.
• It is also called greedy local search as it only looks to its good
immediate neighbour state and not beyond that.
Hill Climbing Search
• 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 optimises 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.
State-space Diagram for Hill Climbing
Different regions in the state space landscape
• Local Maximum: Local maximum is a state which is better than its
neighbor 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 neighbor 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
Simple hill Climbing
• It only evaluates the neighbour node state at a time and selects the
first one which optimises current cost and set it as a current state.
• It only checks its 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.
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.
1. Let S be a state such that any successor of the current state will be better than it.
2. 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 S.
• If it is better than S, then set new state as S.
• If the S is better than the current state, then set current state to S.
◦ Step 5: Exit.
Stochastic hill Climbing
• Stochastic hill climbing does not examine for all its neighbor
before moving.
• Rather, this search algorithm selects one neighbor 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.
Problems in Hill Climbing Algorithm
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.
Problems in Hill Climbing Algorithm
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.
The End