Question

Define the following terms.

a) Heuristics b) Beam search c) Expert systems d) Best first search e) Blind search f) Informed search

Answer 1

Heuristics: Heuristics is a technique designed to carry out search in a more efficient way (than tradition techniques like dfs and bfs). It is a way to inform the search about the proper direction to a goal. It provides an informed way to guess which neighbour of a particular node will lead to a goal.

Beam Search: It is a heuristic search algorithm that explores a graph by expanding the most promising node in a limited set. It is an optimisation over best first search with few lesser memory requirements.

Expert systems: Expert system is a computer program which can solve complex problems using human judgement, knowledge and reasoning. Expert systems use AI to perform reliable decision making.

Best first search: Best first search is an optimised version of BFS and DFS. Unlike the other two which explore paths without considering any cost function, Best First Search uses an evaluation function to decide which neighbouring node is most promising and then explore.

Blind search: Blind search is an uninformed search algorithm which has no knowledge about nodes. The search can only differentiate between a non-goal and a goal state.

Informed search: Informed search uses heuristics to perform search operations. It uses conditions like distance from the goal, cost of the path, and how far to reach the goal to obtain a more optimal and accurate search result.