CS 371: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Recursive Best-First Search

A*
Recall:
Best-First Search with f(n) = g(n) + h(n) is A*
A* finds optimal solution if h(n) never overestimates
A*’s serious limitation: memory requirement (often exponential)
A*’s second limitation: keeping candidate nodes sorted (O(log N) per node, N number of nodes)

Iterative Deepening A*
A series of depth-first searches bounded by iteratively increasing f limit.
If f is monotonic (f(child) >= f(parent)), then IDA* expands nodes in best-first order.
IDA* space requirement – O(bd)
IDA* node generation- O(1)

IDA*
IDASTAR (node : N, bound : B)
IF N is a goal, EXIT algorithm
IF N has no children, RETURN infinity
FN = infinity
FOR each child Ni of N, F[i] := f(Ni)
IF f(Ni) <= B, FN := MIN(FN, IDASTAR(Ni,B))
ELSE FN := MIN(FN, f(Ni))
RETURN FN

IDA* Outer Loop
IDASTARSEARCH (node : N)
B := f(N);
WHILE (TRUE)
B := IDASTAR(N, B)

IDA* Limitations
If f is not monotonic, IDA* no longer expands nodes in best-first order
When searching nodes with f-values less than current threshold, search procedes depth-first.
f-values of such nodes are ignored in search ordering
Example: Fig. 2 tree fragment
Other major limitation: many distinctive f-values à much re-expansion

Recursive Best-First Search
Recursive best-first search (RBFS):
O(bd)-space algorithm
Expands best-first even without monotonic cost function
Generates fewer nodes than iterative deepening with a monotonic cost function

SRBFS
Simple RBFS (SRBFS)
Local cost threshold for each recursive call
Has inefficiencies to be addressed in RBFS, but good intro for teaching purposes
Work the following algorithms with binary tree where f(n) = depth(n)

SRBFS
SRBFS (node : N, bound : B)
IF f(N)>B, RETURN f(N)
IF N is a goal, EXIT algorithm
IF N has no children, RETURN infinity
FOR each child Ni of N, F[i] := f(Ni)
sort Ni and F[i] in increasing order of F[i]
IF only one child, F[2] := infinity
WHILE (F[1] <= B and F[1] < infinity)
F[1] := SRBFS(N1, MIN(B, F[2]))
Insert N1 and F[1] in sorted order
RETURN F[1]

RBFS
RBFS (node : N, value: F(N), bound : B)
IF f(N)>B, RETURN f(N)
IF N is a goal, EXIT algorithm
IF N has no children, RETURN infinity
FOR each child Ni of N
IF f(N)<F(N) THEN F[i] := MAX(F(N),f(Ni))
ELSE F[i] := f(Ni)
sort  Ni and F[i] in increasing order of F[i]
IF only one child, F[2] := infinity
WHILE (F[1] <= B and F[1] < infinity)
F[1] := RBFS(N1, F[1], MIN(B, F[2]))
Insert N1 and F[1] in sorted order
RETURN F[1]