1. By David Sanders CS 430, Artificial Intelligence September 25, 2008

2. Online Searching An online search agent operates by interleaving computation and action. First, it takes action, then it observes the environment and computes the next action. However, there is a penalty for sitting around and computing too long. This is why we need efficient code. Usually used in exploration situations.

3. Offline Search vs. Online Search Offline Search Knows the “map” of the situation Basically finds the shortest path knowing the whole layout of the situation Works like a GPS navigation system Online Search: Doesn’t know the “map” of the situation Has to explore and find out where to go, then determine the shortest path Works like a Roomba

4. Search Patterns Often, online search agents search using a depth-first search pattern. This is usually the most logical search method for an online search. The search pattern must include whether or not the state space is safely explorable. That is, are there cliffs our robot friend will fall off? Random walk method works, but not very well. It takes exponentially many steps to find the goal. Hill climbing search is by default an online search method, but only keeps one state in memory and can’t go back. Depth-first is more efficient.