Authors:
Vojtěch Cahlík
and
Pavel Surynek
Affiliation:
Faculty of Information Technology, Czech Technical University in Prague, Thákurova 9, 160 00 Praha 6 and Czech Republic
Keyword(s):
(N2 − 1)-puzzle, Heuristic Design, Artificial Neural Networks, Deep Learning, Near Optimal Solutions.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Artificial Intelligence
;
Biomedical Engineering
;
Biomedical Signal Processing
;
Complex Artificial Neural Network Based Systems and Dynamics
;
Computational Intelligence
;
Health Engineering and Technology Applications
;
Higher Level Artificial Neural Network Based Intelligent Systems
;
Human-Computer Interaction
;
Learning Paradigms and Algorithms
;
Methodologies and Methods
;
Neural Networks
;
Neurocomputing
;
Neurotechnology, Electronics and Informatics
;
Pattern Recognition
;
Physiological Computing Systems
;
Sensor Networks
;
Signal Processing
;
Soft Computing
;
Theory and Methods
Abstract:
This paper addresses optimal and near-optimal solving of the (N2–1)-puzzle using the A* search algorithm. We develop a novel heuristic based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) called ANN-distance that attempts to estimate the minimum number of moves necessary to reach the goal configuration of the puzzle. With a well trained ANN-distance heuristic, whose inputs are just the positions of the pebbles, we are able to achieve better accuracy of predictions than with conventional heuristics such as those derived from the Manhattan distance or pattern database heuristics. Though we cannot guarantee admissibility of ANN-distance, an experimental evaluation on random 15-puzzles shows that in most cases ANN-distance calculates the true minimum distance from the goal, and furthermore, A* search with the ANN-distance heuristic usually finds an optimal solution or a solution that is very close to the optimum. Moreover, the underlying neural network in ANN-distance consumes much less memory tha
n a comparable pattern database.
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