7. Summary of State Space Search

• Search is an important approach to general-purpose problem-solving.

• Many problems can be cast in terms of a state space search.

• For most practical problems, uninformed search methods like Depth-First and Breadth-First search are not practical. They do however serve as a convenient way to introduce heuristic search methods.

• Heuristic search methods explore the search space "intelligently". That is, evaluating possibilities without having to investigate every single possibility.

• A heuristic function as used by a state space search method is an estimate of the distance remaining to the goal.

• Through the use of heuristics the search can be guided to more "promising" parts of the search space first.

• Admissible search methods such as the A* search, if used with a heuristic that is an underestimate of the remaining cost to the goal, can guarantee finding an optimal solution.

• The AI-Search project aimed to develop a web-based interactive algorithm animation product that could help students of Artificial Intelligence learn about state space search methods in a way beyond that possible with traditional text book and static diagrams.

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