ABSTRACT
Problem solving requires two prime considerations: first representation of the problem by an appropriately organized state space and then testing the existence of a well-defined goal state in that space. Identification of the goal state and determination of the optimal path, leading to the goal through one or more transitions from a given starting state, will be addressed in this chapter in sufficient details. The chapter, thus, starts with some well-known search algorithms, such as the depth first and the breadth first search, with special emphasis on their results of time and space complexity. It then gradually explores the ‘heuristic search’ algorithms, where the order of visiting the states in a search space is supported by thumb rules, called heuristics, and demonstrates their applications in complex problem solving. It also discusses some intelligent search algorithms for game playing.
