Artificial Intelligence - Overview

Since the invention of computers or machines, their capability to perform

various tasks went on growing exponentially. Humans have developed the
power of computer systems in terms of their diverse working domains, their
increasing speed, and reducing size with respect to time.

A branch of Computer Science named Artificial Intelligence pursues creating the

computers or machines as intelligent as human beings.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

According to the father of Artificial Intelligence, John McCarthy, it is “The science
and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer
programs”.

Artificial Intelligence is a way of making a computer, a computer-controlled

robot, or a software think intelligently, in the similar manner the intelligent
humans think.

AI is accomplished by studying how human brain thinks, and how humans learn,
decide, and work while trying to solve a problem, and then using the outcomes
of this study as a basis of developing intelligent software and systems.

Philosophy of AI
While exploiting the power of the computer systems, the curiosity of human,
lead him to wonder, “Can a machine think and behave like humans do?”

Thus, the development of AI started with the intention of creating similar

intelligence in machines that we find and regard high in humans.

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Goals of AI
 To Create Expert Systems − The systems which exhibit intelligent
behavior, learn, demonstrate, explain, and advice its users.
  To Implement Human Intelligence in Machines − Creating systems
that understand, think, learn, and behave like humans.

What Contributes to AI?

Artificial intelligence is a science and technology based on disciplines such as
Computer Science, Biology, Psychology, Linguistics, Mathematics, and
Engineering. A major thrust of AI is in the development of computer functions
associated with human intelligence, such as reasoning, learning, and problem
solving.

Out of the following areas, one or multiple areas can contribute to build an
intelligent system.

Programming Without and With AI

The programming without and with AI is different in following ways −

Programming
Programming Without AI
With AI

A computer program
with AI can answer
A computer program without AI can answer the specific questions it is
the generic questi
meant to solve.
ons it is meant to
solve.

AI programs can
absorb new
modifications by
putting highly
independent pieces
of information
Modification in the program leads to change in its structure. together. Hence you
can modify even a
minute piece of
information of
program without
affecting its
structure.

Quick and Easy

Modification is not quick and easy. It may lead to affecting the program
program
adversely.
modification.

What is AI Technique?
In the real world, the knowledge has some unwelcomed properties −

 Its volume is huge, next to unimaginable.

 It is not well-organized or well-formatted.
 It keeps changing constantly.

AI Technique is a manner to organize and use the knowledge efficiently in such

a way that −

 It should be perceivable by the people who provide it.

 It should be easily modifiable to correct errors.
 It should be useful in many situations though it is incomplete or
inaccurate.
AI techniques elevate the speed of execution of the complex program it is
equipped with.

Applications of AI
AI has been dominant in various fields such as −

 Gaming − AI plays crucial role in strategic games such as chess, poker,

tic-tac-toe, etc., where machine can think of large number of possible
positions based on heuristic knowledge.
 Natural Language Processing − It is possible to interact with the
computer that understands natural language spoken by humans.
 Expert Systems − There are some applications which integrate
machine, software, and special information to impart reasoning and
advising. They provide explanation and advice to the users.
 Vision Systems − These systems understand, interpret, and
comprehend visual input on the computer. For example,
o A spying aeroplane takes photographs, which are used to figure out
spatial information or map of the areas.
o Doctors use clinical expert system to diagnose the patient.
o Police use computer software that can recognize the face of
criminal with the stored portrait made by forensic artist.
 Speech Recognition − Some intelligent systems are capable of hearing
and comprehending the language in terms of sentences and their
meanings while a human talks to it. It can handle different accents, slang
words, noise in the background, change in human’s noise due to cold, etc.
 Handwriting Recognition − The handwriting recognition software reads
the text written on paper by a pen or on screen by a stylus. It can
recognize the shapes of the letters and convert it into editable text.
 Intelligent Robots − Robots are able to perform the tasks given by a
human. They have sensors to detect physical data from the real world
such as light, heat, temperature, movement, sound, bump, and pressure.
They have efficient processors, multiple sensors and huge memory, to
exhibit intelligence. In addition, they are capable of learning from their
mistakes and they can adapt to the new environment.

History of AI
Here is the history of AI during 20th century −

Yea
Milestone / Innovation
r

Karel Čapek play named “Rossum's Universal Robots” (RUR) opens in London, first use of
1923
the word "robot" in English.
1943 Foundations for neural networks laid.

1945 Isaac Asimov, a Columbia University alumni, coined the term Robotics.

Alan Turing introduced Turing Test for evaluation of intelligence and published Computing
1950 Machinery and Intelligence. Claude Shannon published Detailed Analysis of Chess
Playing as a search.

John McCarthy coined the term Artificial Intelligence. Demonstration of the first running AI
1956
program at Carnegie Mellon University.

1958 John McCarthy invents LISP programming language for AI.

Danny Bobrow's dissertation at MIT showed that computers can understand natural language
1964
well enough to solve algebra word problems correctly.

Joseph Weizenbaum at MIT built ELIZA, an interactive problem that carries on a dialogue in
1965
English.

Scientists at Stanford Research Institute Developed Shakey, a robot, equipped with

1969
locomotion, perception, and problem solving.

The Assembly Robotics group at Edinburgh University built Freddy, the Famous Scottish
1973
Robot, capable of using vision to locate and assemble models.

1979 The first computer-controlled autonomous vehicle, Stanford Cart, was built.

1985 Harold Cohen created and demonstrated the drawing program, Aaron.

Major advances in all areas of AI −

 Significant demonstrations in machine learning
 Case-based reasoning
 Multi-agent planning
1990  Scheduling
 Data mining, Web Crawler
 natural language understanding and translation
 Vision, Virtual Reality
 Games

1997 The Deep Blue Chess Program beats the then world chess champion, Garry Kasparov.

Interactive robot pets become commercially available. MIT displays Kismet, a robot with a
2000 face that expresses emotions. The robot Nomad explores remote regions of Antarctica and
locates meteorites.
 Artificial Intelligence - Intelligent
Systems
While studying artificially intelligence, you need to know what intelligence is.
This chapter covers Idea of intelligence, types, and components of intelligence.

What is Intelligence?
The ability of a system to calculate, reason, perceive relationships and
analogies, learn from experience, store and retrieve information from memory,
solve problems, comprehend complex ideas, use natural language fluently,
classify, generalize, and adapt new situations.

Types of Intelligence
As described by Howard Gardner, an American developmental psychologist, the
Intelligence comes in multifold −

Intelligence Description Example

The ability to speak, recognize, and

use mechanisms of phonology
Linguistic intelligence Narrators, Orators
(speech sounds), syntax (grammar),
and semantics (meaning).

The ability to create, communicate

Musicians,
with, and understand meanings made
Musical intelligence Singers,
of sound, understanding of pitch,
Composers
rhythm.

The ability of use and understand

relationships in the absence of action Mathematicians,
Logical-mathematical intelligence
or objects. Understanding complex Scientists
and abstract ideas.

The ability to perceive visual or

spatial information, change it, and re- Map readers,
Spatial intelligence create visual images without reference Astronauts,
to the objects, construct 3D images, Physicists
and to move and rotate them.

Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence The ability to use complete or part of Players, Dancers

the body to solve problems or fashion
 products, control over fine and coarse
motor skills, and manipulate the
objects.

The ability to distinguish among one’s

Intra-personal intelligence own feelings, intentions, and Gautam Buddhha
motivations.

The ability to recognize and make Mass

Interpersonal intelligence distinctions among other people’s Communicators,
feelings, beliefs, and intentions. Interviewers

You can say a machine or a system is artificially intelligent when it is

equipped with at least one and at most all intelligences in it.

What is Intelligence Composed of?

The intelligence is intangible. It is composed of −

 Reasoning
 Learning
 Problem Solving
 Perception
 Linguistic Intelligence

Let us go through all the components briefly −

 Reasoning − It is the set of processes that enables us to provide basis

for judgement, making decisions, and prediction. There are broadly two
types −
Deductive
Inductive Reasoning Reasonin
g
 It starts with a
general
statement and
examines the
It conducts specific observations to makes broad general statements. possibilities
to reach a
specific,
logical
conclusion.

If something
is true of a
class of things
Even if all of the premises are true in a statement, inductive reasoning allows for the
in general, it
conclusion to be false.
is also true for
all members
of that class.

Example −
"All women
of age above
60 years are
grandmothers.
Example − "Nita is a teacher. Nita is studious. Therefore, All teachers are studious."
Shalini is 65
years.
Therefore,
Shalini is a
grandmother."
 Learning − It is the activity of gaining knowledge or skill by studying,
practising, being taught, or experiencing something. Learning enhances
the awareness of the subjects of the study.
The ability of learning is possessed by humans, some animals, and AI-
enabled systems. Learning is categorized as −
o Auditory Learning − It is learning by listening and hearing. For
example, students listening to recorded audio lectures.
o Episodic Learning − To learn by remembering sequences of
events that one has witnessed or experienced. This is linear and
orderly.
o Motor Learning − It is learning by precise movement of muscles.
For example, picking objects, Writing, etc.
o Observational Learning − To learn by watching and imitating
others. For example, child tries to learn by mimicking her parent.
o Perceptual Learning − It is learning to recognize stimuli that one
has seen before. For example, identifying and classifying objects
and situations.
 o Relational Learning − It involves learning to differentiate among
various stimuli on the basis of relational properties, rather than
absolute properties. For Example, Adding ‘little less’ salt at the time
of cooking potatoes that came up salty last time, when cooked with
adding say a tablespoon of salt.
o Spatial Learning − It is learning through visual stimuli such as
images, colors, maps, etc. For Example, A person can create
roadmap in mind before actually following the road.
o Stimulus-Response Learning − It is learning to perform a
particular behavior when a certain stimulus is present. For example,
a dog raises its ear on hearing doorbell.
 Problem Solving − It is the process in which one perceives and tries to
arrive at a desired solution from a present situation by taking some path,
which is blocked by known or unknown hurdles.
Problem solving also includes decision making, which is the process of
selecting the best suitable alternative out of multiple alternatives to reach
the desired goal are available.
 Perception − It is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and
organizing sensory information.
Perception presumes sensing. In humans, perception is aided by sensory
organs. In the domain of AI, perception mechanism puts the data acquired
by the sensors together in a meaningful manner.
 Linguistic Intelligence − It is one’s ability to use, comprehend, speak,
and write the verbal and written language. It is important in interpersonal
communication.

Difference between Human and Machine

Intelligence
 Humans perceive by patterns whereas the machines perceive by set of
rules and data.
 Humans store and recall information by patterns, machines do it by
searching algorithms. For example, the number 40404040 is easy to
remember, store, and recall as its pattern is simple.
 Humans can figure out the complete object even if some part of it is
missing or distorted; whereas the machines cannot do it correctly.

Artificial Intelligence - Research

Areas
The domain of artificial intelligence is huge in breadth and width. While
proceeding, we consider the broadly common and prospering research areas in
the domain of AI −
Speech and Voice Recognition
These both terms are common in robotics, expert systems and natural language
processing. Though these terms are used interchangeably, their objectives are
different.

Speech Recognition Voice Recognition

The speech recognition aims at understanding and The objective of voice recognition is to
comprehending WHAT was spoken. recognize WHO is speaking.

It is used in hand-free computing, map, or menu It is used to identify a person by analysing its
navigation. tone, voice pitch, and accent, etc.
 Machine does not need training for Speech This recognition system needs training as it is
Recognition as it is not speaker dependent. person oriented.

Speaker independent Speech Recognition systems Speaker dependent Speech Recognition

are difficult to develop. systems are comparatively easy to develop.

Working of Speech and Voice Recognition Systems

The user input spoken at a microphone goes to sound card of the system. The
converter turns the analog signal into equivalent digital signal for the speech
processing. The database is used to compare the sound patterns to recognize
the words. Finally, a reverse feedback is given to the database.

This source-language text becomes input to the Translation Engine, which

converts it to the target language text. They are supported with interactive GUI,
large database of vocabulary, etc.

Real Life Applications of Research Areas

There is a large array of applications where AI is serving common people in their
day-to-day lives −

Sr.N
Research Areas Real Life Application
o.

Expert Systems
1
Examples − Flight-tracking systems, Clinical systems.

Natural Language Processing

2 Examples: Google Now feature, speech recognition,
Automatic voice output.
 Neural Networks
3 Examples − Pattern recognition systems such as face
recognition, character recognition, handwriting recognition.

Robotics
4 Examples − Industrial robots for moving, spraying, painting,
precision checking, drilling, cleaning, coating, carving, etc.

Fuzzy Logic Systems

5
Examples − Consumer electronics, automobiles, etc.

Task Classification of AI
The domain of AI is classified into Formal tasks, Mundane tasks, and Expert
tasks.
 Task Domains of Artificial Intelligence

Mundane (Ordinary)
Formal Tasks Expert Tasks
Tasks

 Mathematics  Engineering
Perception
 Geometry  Fault Finding
 Computer Vision
 Logic  Manufacturing
 Speech, Voice
 Integration and Differentiation  Monitoring

Natural Language Processing Games

 Understanding  Go
Scientific Analysis
 Language Generation  Chess (Deep Blue)
 Language Translation  Ckeckers

Common Sense Verification Financial Analysis

Reasoning Theorem Proving Medical Diagnosis

 Planing Creativity

Robotics

 Locomotive

Humans learn mundane (ordinary) tasks since their birth. They learn by
perception, speaking, using language, and locomotives. They learn Formal Tasks
and Expert Tasks later, in that order.

For humans, the mundane tasks are easiest to learn. The same was considered
true before trying to implement mundane tasks in machines. Earlier, all work of
AI was concentrated in the mundane task domain.

Later, it turned out that the machine requires more knowledge, complex
knowledge representation, and complicated algorithms for handling mundane
tasks. This is the reason why AI work is more prospering in the Expert
Tasks domain now, as the expert task domain needs expert knowledge without
common sense, which can be easier to represent and handle.

AI - Agents & Environments

An AI system is composed of an agent and its environment. The agents act in
their environment. The environment may contain other agents.

What are Agent and Environment?

An agent is anything that can perceive its environment through sensors and
acts upon that environment through effectors.

 A human agent has sensory organs such as eyes, ears, nose, tongue and
skin parallel to the sensors, and other organs such as hands, legs, mouth,
for effectors.
 A robotic agent replaces cameras and infrared range finders for the
sensors, and various motors and actuators for effectors.
 A software agent has encoded bit strings as its programs and actions.
Agent Terminology
 Performance Measure of Agent − It is the criteria, which determines
how successful an agent is.
 Behavior of Agent − It is the action that agent performs after any given
sequence of percepts.
 Percept − It is agent’s perceptual inputs at a given instance.
 Percept Sequence − It is the history of all that an agent has perceived
till date.
 Agent Function − It is a map from the precept sequence to an action.

Rationality
Rationality is nothing but status of being reasonable, sensible, and having good
sense of judgment.

Rationality is concerned with expected actions and results depending upon what
the agent has perceived. Performing actions with the aim of obtaining useful
information is an important part of rationality.

What is Ideal Rational Agent?

An ideal rational agent is the one, which is capable of doing expected actions to
maximize its performance measure, on the basis of −

 Its percept sequence

 Its built-in knowledge base

Rationality of an agent depends on the following −

  The performance measures, which determine the degree of success.
 Agent’s Percept Sequence till now.
 The agent’s prior knowledge about the environment.
 The actions that the agent can carry out.

A rational agent always performs right action, where the right action means the
action that causes the agent to be most successful in the given percept
sequence. The problem the agent solves is characterized by Performance
Measure, Environment, Actuators, and Sensors (PEAS).

The Structure of Intelligent Agents

Agent’s structure can be viewed as −

 Agent = Architecture + Agent Program

 Architecture = the machinery that an agent executes on.
 Agent Program = an implementation of an agent function.

Simple Reflex Agents

 They choose actions only based on the current percept.
 They are rational only if a correct decision is made only on the basis of
current precept.
 Their environment is completely observable.

Condition-Action Rule − It is a rule that maps a state (condition) to an action.

Model Based Reflex Agents
They use a model of the world to choose their actions. They maintain an internal
state.

Model − knowledge about “how the things happen in the world”.

Internal State − It is a representation of unobserved aspects of current state

depending on percept history.

Updating the state requires the information about −

 How the world evolves.

 How the agent’s actions affect the world.

Goal Based Agents

They choose their actions in order to achieve goals. Goal-based approach is
more flexible than reflex agent since the knowledge supporting a decision is
explicitly modeled, thereby allowing for modifications.

Goal − It is the description of desirable situations.

Utility Based Agents
They choose actions based on a preference (utility) for each state.

Goals are inadequate when −

 There are conflicting goals, out of which only few can be achieved.
 Goals have some uncertainty of being achieved and you need to weigh
likelihood of success against the importance of a goal.

The Nature of Environments

Some programs operate in the entirely artificial environment confined to
keyboard input, database, computer file systems and character output on a
screen.

In contrast, some software agents (software robots or softbots) exist in rich,

unlimited softbots domains. The simulator has a very detailed, complex
environment. The software agent needs to choose from a long array of actions
in real time. A softbot designed to scan the online preferences of the customer
and show interesting items to the customer works in the real as well as
an artificial environment.

The most famous artificial environment is the Turing Test environment, in

which one real and other artificial agents are tested on equal ground. This is a
very challenging environment as it is highly difficult for a software agent to
perform as well as a human.

Turing Test
The success of an intelligent behavior of a system can be measured with Turing
Test.

Two persons and a machine to be evaluated participate in the test. Out of the
two persons, one plays the role of the tester. Each of them sits in different
rooms. The tester is unaware of who is machine and who is a human. He
interrogates the questions by typing and sending them to both intelligences, to
which he receives typed responses.

This test aims at fooling the tester. If the tester fails to determine machine’s
response from the human response, then the machine is said to be intelligent.

Properties of Environment
The environment has multifold properties −

 Discrete / Continuous − If there are a limited number of distinct, clearly

defined, states of the environment, the environment is discrete (For
example, chess); otherwise it is continuous (For example, driving).
 Observable / Partially Observable − If it is possible to determine the
complete state of the environment at each time point from the percepts it
is observable; otherwise it is only partially observable.
 Static / Dynamic − If the environment does not change while an agent is
acting, then it is static; otherwise it is dynamic.
 Single agent / Multiple agents − The environment may contain other
agents which may be of the same or different kind as that of the agent.
 Accessible / Inaccessible − If the agent’s sensory apparatus can have
access to the complete state of the environment, then the environment is
accessible to that agent.
  Deterministic / Non-deterministic − If the next state of the
environment is completely determined by the current state and the
actions of the agent, then the environment is deterministic; otherwise it is
non-deterministic.
 Episodic / Non-episodic − In an episodic environment, each episode
consists of the agent perceiving and then acting. The quality of its action
depends just on the episode itself. Subsequent episodes do not depend on
the actions in the previous episodes. Episodic environments are much
simpler because the agent does not need to think ahead.

AI - Popular Search Algorithms

Searching is the universal technique of problem solving in AI. There are some
single-player games such as tile games, Sudoku, crossword, etc. The search
algorithms help you to search for a particular position in such games.

Single Agent Pathfinding Problems

The games such as 3X3 eight-tile, 4X4 fifteen-tile, and 5X5 twenty four tile
puzzles are single-agent-path-finding challenges. They consist of a matrix of
tiles with a blank tile. The player is required to arrange the tiles by sliding a tile
either vertically or horizontally into a blank space with the aim of accomplishing
some objective.

The other examples of single agent pathfinding problems are Travelling

Salesman Problem, Rubik’s Cube, and Theorem Proving.

Search Terminology
 Problem Space − It is the environment in which the search takes place.
(A set of states and set of operators to change those states)
 Problem Instance − It is Initial state + Goal state.
 Problem Space Graph − It represents problem state. States are shown
by nodes and operators are shown by edges.
 Depth of a problem − Length of a shortest path or shortest sequence of
operators from Initial State to goal state.
 Space Complexity − The maximum number of nodes that are stored in
memory.
 Time Complexity − The maximum number of nodes that are created.
 Admissibility − A property of an algorithm to always find an optimal
solution.
 Branching Factor − The average number of child nodes in the problem
space graph.
 Depth − Length of the shortest path from initial state to goal state.
Brute-Force Search Strategies
They are most simple, as they do not need any domain-specific knowledge. They
work fine with small number of possible states.

Requirements −

 State description
 A set of valid operators
 Initial state
 Goal state description

Breadth-First Search
It starts from the root node, explores the neighboring nodes first and moves
towards the next level neighbors. It generates one tree at a time until the
solution is found. It can be implemented using FIFO queue data structure. This
method provides shortest path to the solution.

If branching factor (average number of child nodes for a given node) = b and
depth = d, then number of nodes at level d = b d.

The total no of nodes created in worst case is b + b 2 + b3 + … + bd.

Disadvantage − Since each level of nodes is saved for creating next one, it
consumes a lot of memory space. Space requirement to store nodes is
exponential.

Its complexity depends on the number of nodes. It can check duplicate nodes.

Depth-First Search
It is implemented in recursion with LIFO stack data structure. It creates the
same set of nodes as Breadth-First method, only in the different order.
As the nodes on the single path are stored in each iteration from root to leaf
node, the space requirement to store nodes is linear. With branching
factor b and depth as m, the storage space is bm.

Disadvantage − This algorithm may not terminate and go on infinitely on one

path. The solution to this issue is to choose a cut-off depth. If the ideal cut-off
is d, and if chosen cut-off is lesser than d, then this algorithm may fail. If chosen
cut-off is more than d, then execution time increases.

Its complexity depends on the number of paths. It cannot check duplicate

nodes.

Bidirectional Search
It searches forward from initial state and backward from goal state till both meet
to identify a common state.

The path from initial state is concatenated with the inverse path from the goal
state. Each search is done only up to half of the total path.

Uniform Cost Search

Sorting is done in increasing cost of the path to a node. It always expands the
least cost node. It is identical to Breadth First search if each transition has the
same cost.

It explores paths in the increasing order of cost.

Disadvantage − There can be multiple long paths with the cost ≤ C*. Uniform
Cost search must explore them all.

Iterative Deepening Depth-First Search

It performs depth-first search to level 1, starts over, executes a complete depth-
first search to level 2, and continues in such way till the solution is found.

It never creates a node until all lower nodes are generated. It only saves a stack
of nodes. The algorithm ends when it finds a solution at depth d. The number of
nodes created at depth d is bd and at depth d-1 is bd-1.

Comparison of Various Algorithms Complexities

Let us see the performance of algorithms based on various criteria −

Interactiv
Breadth Depth Bidirectiona Uniform e
Criterion
First First l Cost Deepenin
g

Time bd bm bd/2 bd bd

Space bd bm bd/2 bd bd

Optimality Yes No Yes Yes Yes

Completeness Yes No Yes Yes Yes

Informed (Heuristic) Search Strategies

To solve large problems with large number of possible states, problem-specific
knowledge needs to be added to increase the efficiency of search algorithms.
Heuristic Evaluation Functions
They calculate the cost of optimal path between two states. A heuristic function
for sliding-tiles games is computed by counting number of moves that each tile
makes from its goal state and adding these number of moves for all tiles.

Pure Heuristic Search

It expands nodes in the order of their heuristic values. It creates two lists, a
closed list for the already expanded nodes and an open list for the created but
unexpanded nodes.

In each iteration, a node with a minimum heuristic value is expanded, all its
child nodes are created and placed in the closed list. Then, the heuristic function
is applied to the child nodes and they are placed in the open list according to
their heuristic value. The shorter paths are saved and the longer ones are
disposed.

A * Search
It is best-known form of Best First search. It avoids expanding paths that are
already expensive, but expands most promising paths first.

f(n) = g(n) + h(n), where

 g(n) the cost (so far) to reach the node

 h(n) estimated cost to get from the node to the goal
 f(n) estimated total cost of path through n to goal. It is implemented using
priority queue by increasing f(n).

Greedy Best First Search

It expands the node that is estimated to be closest to goal. It expands nodes
based on f(n) = h(n). It is implemented using priority queue.

Disadvantage − It can get stuck in loops. It is not optimal.

Local Search Algorithms

They start from a prospective solution and then move to a neighboring solution.
They can return a valid solution even if it is interrupted at any time before they
end.

Hill-Climbing Search
It is an iterative algorithm that starts with an arbitrary solution to a problem and
attempts to find a better solution by changing a single element of the solution
incrementally. If the change produces a better solution, an incremental change
is taken as a new solution. This process is repeated until there are no further
improvements.

function Hill-Climbing (problem), returns a state that is a local maximum.

inputs: problem, a problem

local variables: current, a node
neighbor, a node
current <-Make_Node(Initial-State[problem])
loop
do neighbor <- a highest_valued successor of current
if Value[neighbor] ≤ Value[current] then
return State[current]
current <- neighbor

end

Disadvantage − This algorithm is neither complete, nor optimal.

Local Beam Search

In this algorithm, it holds k number of states at any given time. At the start,
these states are generated randomly. The successors of these k states are
computed with the help of objective function. If any of these successors is the
maximum value of the objective function, then the algorithm stops.

Otherwise the (initial k states and k number of successors of the states = 2k)
states are placed in a pool. The pool is then sorted numerically. The highest k
states are selected as new initial states. This process continues until a
maximum value is reached.

function BeamSearch( problem, k), returns a solution state.

start with k randomly generated states

loop
generate all successors of all k states
if any of the states = solution, then return the state
else select the k best successors
end
Simulated Annealing
Annealing is the process of heating and cooling a metal to change its internal
structure for modifying its physical properties. When the metal cools, its new
structure is seized, and the metal retains its newly obtained properties. In
simulated annealing process, the temperature is kept variable.

We initially set the temperature high and then allow it to ‘cool' slowly as the
algorithm proceeds. When the temperature is high, the algorithm is allowed to
accept worse solutions with high frequency.

Start

 Initialize k = 0; L = integer number of variables;

 From i → j, search the performance difference Δ.
 If Δ <= 0 then accept else if exp(-Δ/T(k)) > random(0,1) then accept;
 Repeat steps 1 and 2 for L(k) steps.
 k = k + 1;

Repeat steps 1 through 4 till the criteria is met.

End

Travelling Salesman Problem

In this algorithm, the objective is to find a low-cost tour that starts from a city,
visits all cities en-route exactly once and ends at the same starting city.

Start
Find out all (n -1)! Possible solutions, where n is the total number of cities.
Determine the minimum cost by finding out the cost of each of these (n -1)!
solutions.
Finally, keep the one with the minimum cost.
end
Artificial Intelligence - Fuzzy Logic
Systems
Fuzzy Logic Systems (FLS) produce acceptable but definite output in response to
incomplete, ambiguous, distorted, or inaccurate (fuzzy) input.

What is Fuzzy Logic?

Fuzzy Logic (FL) is a method of reasoning that resembles human reasoning. The
approach of FL imitates the way of decision making in humans that involves all
intermediate possibilities between digital values YES and NO.

The conventional logic block that a computer can understand takes precise
input and produces a definite output as TRUE or FALSE, which is equivalent to
human’s YES or NO.

The inventor of fuzzy logic, Lotfi Zadeh, observed that unlike computers, the
human decision making includes a range of possibilities between YES and NO,
such as −

CERTAINLY YES
POSSIBLY YES
CANNOT SAY
POSSIBLY NO
CERTAINLY NO
The fuzzy logic works on the levels of possibilities of input to achieve the
definite output.

Implementation
 It can be implemented in systems with various sizes and capabilities
ranging from small micro-controllers to large, networked, workstation-
based control systems.
 It can be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of both.

Why Fuzzy Logic?

Fuzzy logic is useful for commercial and practical purposes.

 It can control machines and consumer products.

 It may not give accurate reasoning, but acceptable reasoning.
 Fuzzy logic helps to deal with the uncertainty in engineering.

Fuzzy Logic Systems Architecture

It has four main parts as shown −

 Fuzzification Module − It transforms the system inputs, which are crisp

numbers, into fuzzy sets. It splits the input signal into five steps such as −
LP x is Large Positive

MP x is Medium Positive

S x is Small

MN x is Medium Negative

LN x is Large Negative
 Knowledge Base − It stores IF-THEN rules provided by experts.
 Inference Engine − It simulates the human reasoning process by
making fuzzy inference on the inputs and IF-THEN rules.
 Defuzzification Module − It transforms the fuzzy set obtained by the
inference engine into a crisp value.
The membership functions work on fuzzy sets of variables.

Membership Function
Membership functions allow you to quantify linguistic term and represent a fuzzy
set graphically. A membership function for a fuzzy set A on the universe of
discourse X is defined as μA:X → [0,1].

Here, each element of X is mapped to a value between 0 and 1. It is

called membership value or degree of membership. It quantifies the degree
of membership of the element in X to the fuzzy set A.

 x axis represents the universe of discourse.

 y axis represents the degrees of membership in the [0, 1] interval.

There can be multiple membership functions applicable to fuzzify a numerical

value. Simple membership functions are used as use of complex functions does
not add more precision in the output.

All membership functions for LP, MP, S, MN, and LN are shown as below −
The triangular membership function shapes are most common among various
other membership function shapes such as trapezoidal, singleton, and Gaussian.

Here, the input to 5-level fuzzifier varies from -10 volts to +10 volts. Hence the
corresponding output also changes.

Example of a Fuzzy Logic System

Let us consider an air conditioning system with 5-level fuzzy logic system. This
system adjusts the temperature of air conditioner by comparing the room
temperature and the target temperature value.
Algorithm
 Define linguistic Variables and terms (start)
 Construct membership functions for them. (start)
 Construct knowledge base of rules (start)
 Convert crisp data into fuzzy data sets using membership functions.
(fuzzification)
 Evaluate rules in the rule base. (Inference Engine)
 Combine results from each rule. (Inference Engine)
 Convert output data into non-fuzzy values. (defuzzification)

Development
Step 1 − Define linguistic variables and terms
Linguistic variables are input and output variables in the form of simple words or
sentences. For room temperature, cold, warm, hot, etc., are linguistic terms.

Temperature (t) = {very-cold, cold, warm, very-warm, hot}

Every member of this set is a linguistic term and it can cover some portion of
overall temperature values.

Step 2 − Construct membership functions for them

The membership functions of temperature variable are as shown −

Step3 − Construct knowledge base rules

Create a matrix of room temperature values versus target temperature values

that an air conditioning system is expected to provide.

RoomTemp
Very_Cold Cold Warm Hot Very_Hot
. /Target

Very_Cold No_Change Heat Heat Heat Heat

Cold Cool No_Change Heat Heat Heat

Warm Cool Cool No_Change Heat Heat

Hot Cool Cool Cool No_Change Heat

Very_Hot Cool Cool Cool Cool No_Change

Build a set of rules into the knowledge base in the form of IF-THEN-ELSE
structures.

Sr. No. Condition Action

1 IF temperature=(Cold OR Very_Cold) AND target=Warm THEN Heat

2 IF temperature=(Hot OR Very_Hot) AND target=Warm THEN Cool

3 IF (temperature=Warm) AND (target=Warm) THEN No_Change

Step 4 − Obtain fuzzy value

Fuzzy set operations perform evaluation of rules. The operations used for OR
and AND are Max and Min respectively. Combine all results of evaluation to form
a final result. This result is a fuzzy value.

Step 5 − Perform defuzzification

Defuzzification is then performed according to membership function for output

variable.

Application Areas of Fuzzy Logic

The key application areas of fuzzy logic are as given −

Automotive Systems

 Automatic Gearboxes
  Four-Wheel Steering
 Vehicle environment control

Consumer Electronic Goods

 Hi-Fi Systems
 Photocopiers
 Still and Video Cameras
 Television

Domestic Goods

 Microwave Ovens
 Refrigerators
 Toasters
 Vacuum Cleaners
 Washing Machines

Environment Control

 Air Conditioners/Dryers/Heaters
 Humidifiers

Advantages of FLSs
 Mathematical concepts within fuzzy reasoning are very simple.
 You can modify a FLS by just adding or deleting rules due to flexibility of
fuzzy logic.
 Fuzzy logic Systems can take imprecise, distorted, noisy input
information.
 FLSs are easy to construct and understand.
 Fuzzy logic is a solution to complex problems in all fields of life, including
medicine, as it resembles human reasoning and decision making.

Disadvantages of FLSs
 There is no systematic approach to fuzzy system designing.
 They are understandable only when simple.
 They are suitable for the problems which do not need high accuracy.

AI - Natural Language Processing

Natural Language Processing (NLP) refers to AI method of communicating with
an intelligent systems using a natural language such as English.
Processing of Natural Language is required when you want an intelligent system
like robot to perform as per your instructions, when you want to hear decision
from a dialogue based clinical expert system, etc.

The field of NLP involves making computers to perform useful tasks with the
natural languages humans use. The input and output of an NLP system can be −

 Speech
 Written Text

Components of NLP
There are two components of NLP as given −

Natural Language Understanding (NLU)

Understanding involves the following tasks −

 Mapping the given input in natural language into useful representations.

 Analyzing different aspects of the language.

Natural Language Generation (NLG)

It is the process of producing meaningful phrases and sentences in the form of
natural language from some internal representation.

It involves −

 Text planning − It includes retrieving the relevant content from

knowledge base.
 Sentence planning − It includes choosing required words, forming
meaningful phrases, setting tone of the sentence.
 Text Realization − It is mapping sentence plan into sentence structure.

The NLU is harder than NLG.

Difficulties in NLU
NL has an extremely rich form and structure.

It is very ambiguous. There can be different levels of ambiguity −

 Lexical ambiguity − It is at very primitive level such as word-level.

 For example, treating the word “board” as noun or verb?
 Syntax Level ambiguity − A sentence can be parsed in different ways.
  For example, “He lifted the beetle with red cap.” − Did he use cap to lift
the beetle or he lifted a beetle that had red cap?
 Referential ambiguity − Referring to something using pronouns. For
example, Rima went to Gauri. She said, “I am tired.” − Exactly who is
tired?
 One input can mean different meanings.
 Many inputs can mean the same thing.

NLP Terminology
 Phonology − It is study of organizing sound systematically.
 Morphology − It is a study of construction of words from primitive
meaningful units.
 Morpheme − It is primitive unit of meaning in a language.
 Syntax − It refers to arranging words to make a sentence. It also involves
determining the structural role of words in the sentence and in phrases.
 Semantics − It is concerned with the meaning of words and how to
combine words into meaningful phrases and sentences.
 Pragmatics − It deals with using and understanding sentences in
different situations and how the interpretation of the sentence is affected.
 Discourse − It deals with how the immediately preceding sentence can
affect the interpretation of the next sentence.
 World Knowledge − It includes the general knowledge about the world.

Steps in NLP
There are general five steps −

 Lexical Analysis − It involves identifying and analyzing the structure of

words. Lexicon of a language means the collection of words and phrases
in a language. Lexical analysis is dividing the whole chunk of txt into
paragraphs, sentences, and words.
 Syntactic Analysis (Parsing) − It involves analysis of words in the
sentence for grammar and arranging words in a manner that shows the
relationship among the words. The sentence such as “The school goes to
boy” is rejected by English syntactic analyzer.
  Semantic Analysis − It draws the exact meaning or the dictionary
meaning from the text. The text is checked for meaningfulness. It is done
by mapping syntactic structures and objects in the task domain. The
semantic analyzer disregards sentence such as “hot ice-cream”.
 Discourse Integration − The meaning of any sentence depends upon
the meaning of the sentence just before it. In addition, it also brings about
the meaning of immediately succeeding sentence.
 Pragmatic Analysis − During this, what was said is re-interpreted on
what it actually meant. It involves deriving those aspects of language
which require real world knowledge.

Implementation Aspects of Syntactic Analysis

There are a number of algorithms researchers have developed for syntactic
analysis, but we consider only the following simple methods −

 Context-Free Grammar
  Top-Down Parser

Let us see them in detail −

Context-Free Grammar
It is the grammar that consists rules with a single symbol on the left-hand side
of the rewrite rules. Let us create grammar to parse a sentence −

“The bird pecks the grains”

Articles (DET) − a | an | the

Nouns − bird | birds | grain | grains

Noun Phrase (NP) − Article + Noun | Article + Adjective + Noun

= DET N | DET ADJ N

Verbs − pecks | pecking | pecked

Verb Phrase (VP) − NP V | V NP

Adjectives (ADJ) − beautiful | small | chirping

The parse tree breaks down the sentence into structured parts so that the
computer can easily understand and process it. In order for the parsing
algorithm to construct this parse tree, a set of rewrite rules, which describe what
tree structures are legal, need to be constructed.

These rules say that a certain symbol may be expanded in the tree by a
sequence of other symbols. According to first order logic rule, if there are two
strings Noun Phrase (NP) and Verb Phrase (VP), then the string combined by NP
followed by VP is a sentence. The rewrite rules for the sentence are as follows −

S → NP VP

NP → DET N | DET ADJ N

VP → V NP

Lexocon −

DET → a | the

ADJ → beautiful | perching

N → bird | birds | grain | grains

V → peck | pecks | pecking

The parse tree can be created as shown −

Now consider the above rewrite rules. Since V can be replaced by both, "peck"
or "pecks", sentences such as "The bird peck the grains" can be wrongly
permitted. i. e. the subject-verb agreement error is approved as correct.

Merit − The simplest style of grammar, therefore widely used one.

Demerits −

 They are not highly precise. For example, “The grains peck the bird”, is a
syntactically correct according to parser, but even if it makes no sense,
parser takes it as a correct sentence.
 To bring out high precision, multiple sets of grammar need to be
prepared. It may require a completely different sets of rules for parsing
 singular and plural variations, passive sentences, etc., which can lead to
creation of huge set of rules that are unmanageable.

Top-Down Parser
Here, the parser starts with the S symbol and attempts to rewrite it into a
sequence of terminal symbols that matches the classes of the words in the input
sentence until it consists entirely of terminal symbols.

These are then checked with the input sentence to see if it matched. If not, the
process is started over again with a different set of rules. This is repeated until a
specific rule is found which describes the structure of the sentence.

Merit − It is simple to implement.

Demerits −

 It is inefficient, as the search process has to be repeated if an error

occurs.
 Slow speed of working.

Artificial Intelligence - Expert

Systems
Expert systems (ES) are one of the prominent research domains of AI. It is
introduced by the researchers at Stanford University, Computer Science
Department.

What are Expert Systems?

The expert systems are the computer applications developed to solve complex
problems in a particular domain, at the level of extra-ordinary human
intelligence and expertise.

Characteristics of Expert Systems

 High performance
 Understandable
 Reliable
 Highly responsive

Capabilities of Expert Systems

The expert systems are capable of −

 Advising
 Instructing and assisting human in decision making
 Demonstrating
 Deriving a solution
 Diagnosing
 Explaining
 Interpreting input
 Predicting results
 Justifying the conclusion
 Suggesting alternative options to a problem

They are incapable of −

 Substituting human decision makers

 Possessing human capabilities
 Producing accurate output for inadequate knowledge base
 Refining their own knowledge

Components of Expert Systems

The components of ES include −

 Knowledge Base
 Inference Engine
 User Interface

Let us see them one by one briefly −

Knowledge Base
It contains domain-specific and high-quality knowledge.

Knowledge is required to exhibit intelligence. The success of any ES majorly

depends upon the collection of highly accurate and precise knowledge.

What is Knowledge?
The data is collection of facts. The information is organized as data and facts
about the task domain. Data, information, and past experience combined
together are termed as knowledge.

Components of Knowledge Base

The knowledge base of an ES is a store of both, factual and heuristic knowledge.

 Factual Knowledge − It is the information widely accepted by the

Knowledge Engineers and scholars in the task domain.
 Heuristic Knowledge − It is about practice, accurate judgement, one’s
ability of evaluation, and guessing.

Knowledge representation
It is the method used to organize and formalize the knowledge in the knowledge
base. It is in the form of IF-THEN-ELSE rules.

Knowledge Acquisition
The success of any expert system majorly depends on the quality,
completeness, and accuracy of the information stored in the knowledge base.

The knowledge base is formed by readings from various experts, scholars, and
the Knowledge Engineers. The knowledge engineer is a person with the
qualities of empathy, quick learning, and case analyzing skills.

He acquires information from subject expert by recording, interviewing, and

observing him at work, etc. He then categorizes and organizes the information
in a meaningful way, in the form of IF-THEN-ELSE rules, to be used by
interference machine. The knowledge engineer also monitors the development
of the ES.

Inference Engine
Use of efficient procedures and rules by the Inference Engine is essential in
deducting a correct, flawless solution.

In case of knowledge-based ES, the Inference Engine acquires and manipulates

the knowledge from the knowledge base to arrive at a particular solution.

In case of rule based ES, it −

 Applies rules repeatedly to the facts, which are obtained from earlier rule
application.
 Adds new knowledge into the knowledge base if required.
 Resolves rules conflict when multiple rules are applicable to a particular
case.

To recommend a solution, the Inference Engine uses the following strategies −

 Forward Chaining
 Backward Chaining

Forward Chaining
It is a strategy of an expert system to answer the question, “What can happen
next?”
Here, the Inference Engine follows the chain of conditions and derivations and
finally deduces the outcome. It considers all the facts and rules, and sorts them
before concluding to a solution.

This strategy is followed for working on conclusion, result, or effect. For

example, prediction of share market status as an effect of changes in interest
rates.

Backward Chaining
With this strategy, an expert system finds out the answer to the question, “Why
this happened?”

On the basis of what has already happened, the Inference Engine tries to find
out which conditions could have happened in the past for this result. This
strategy is followed for finding out cause or reason. For example, diagnosis of
blood cancer in humans.

User Interface
User interface provides interaction between user of the ES and the ES itself. It is
generally Natural Language Processing so as to be used by the user who is well-
versed in the task domain. The user of the ES need not be necessarily an expert
in Artificial Intelligence.

It explains how the ES has arrived at a particular recommendation. The

explanation may appear in the following forms −

 Natural language displayed on screen.

 Verbal narrations in natural language.
 Listing of rule numbers displayed on the screen.

The user interface makes it easy to trace the credibility of the deductions.

Requirements of Efficient ES User Interface

 It should help users to accomplish their goals in shortest possible way.
 It should be designed to work for user’s existing or desired work practices.
 Its technology should be adaptable to user’s requirements; not the other
way round.
 It should make efficient use of user input.

Expert Systems Limitations

No technology can offer easy and complete solution. Large systems are costly,
require significant development time, and computer resources. ESs have their
limitations which include −

 Limitations of the technology

 Difficult knowledge acquisition
 ES are difficult to maintain
 High development costs

Applications of Expert System

The following table shows where ES can be applied.

Application Description

Design Domain Camera lens design, automobile design.

Diagnosis Systems to deduce cause of disease from observed data,

Medical Domain
conduction medical operations on humans.

Comparing data continuously with observed system or with prescribed

Monitoring Systems
behavior such as leakage monitoring in long petroleum pipeline.
 Process Control Systems Controlling a physical process based on monitoring.

Knowledge Domain Finding out faults in vehicles, computers.

Detection of possible fraud, suspicious transactions, stock market

Finance/Commerce
trading, Airline scheduling, cargo scheduling.

Expert System Technology

There are several levels of ES technologies available. Expert systems
technologies include −

 Expert System Development Environment − The ES development

environment includes hardware and tools. They are −
o Workstations, minicomputers, mainframes.
o High level Symbolic Programming Languages such
as LISt Programming (LISP) and PROgrammation en LOGique
(PROLOG).
o Large databases.
 Tools − They reduce the effort and cost involved in developing an expert
system to large extent.
o Powerful editors and debugging tools with multi-windows.
o They provide rapid prototyping
o Have Inbuilt definitions of model, knowledge representation, and
inference design.
 Shells − A shell is nothing but an expert system without knowledge base.
A shell provides the developers with knowledge acquisition, inference
engine, user interface, and explanation facility. For example, few shells
are given below −
o Java Expert System Shell (JESS) that provides fully developed Java
API for creating an expert system.
o Vidwan, a shell developed at the National Centre for Software
Technology, Mumbai in 1993. It enables knowledge encoding in the
form of IF-THEN rules.

Development of Expert Systems: General Steps

The process of ES development is iterative. Steps in developing the ES include −

Identify Problem Domain

 The problem must be suitable for an expert system to solve it.
 Find the experts in task domain for the ES project.
 Establish cost-effectiveness of the system.
Design the System
 Identify the ES Technology
 Know and establish the degree of integration with the other systems and
databases.
 Realize how the concepts can represent the domain knowledge best.

Develop the Prototype

From Knowledge Base: The knowledge engineer works to −

 Acquire domain knowledge from the expert.

 Represent it in the form of If-THEN-ELSE rules.

Test and Refine the Prototype

 The knowledge engineer uses sample cases to test the prototype for any
deficiencies in performance.
 End users test the prototypes of the ES.

Develop and Complete the ES

 Test and ensure the interaction of the ES with all elements of its
environment, including end users, databases, and other information
systems.
 Document the ES project well.
 Train the user to use ES.

Maintain the System

 Keep the knowledge base up-to-date by regular review and update.
 Cater for new interfaces with other information systems, as those systems
evolve.

Benefits of Expert Systems

 Availability − They are easily available due to mass production of
software.
 Less Production Cost − Production cost is reasonable. This makes them
affordable.
 Speed − They offer great speed. They reduce the amount of work an
individual puts in.
 Less Error Rate − Error rate is low as compared to human errors.
 Reducing Risk − They can work in the environment dangerous to
humans.
  Steady response − They work steadily without getting motional, tensed
or fatigued.

Artificial Intelligence - Robotics

Robotics is a domain in artificial intelligence that deals with the study of creating
intelligent and efficient robots.

What are Robots?

Robots are the artificial agents acting in real world environment.

Objective
Robots are aimed at manipulating the objects by perceiving, picking, moving,
modifying the physical properties of object, destroying it, or to have an effect
thereby freeing manpower from doing repetitive functions without getting
bored, distracted, or exhausted.

What is Robotics?
Robotics is a branch of AI, which is composed of Electrical Engineering,
Mechanical Engineering, and Computer Science for designing, construction, and
application of robots.

Aspects of Robotics
 The robots have mechanical construction, form, or shape designed to
accomplish a particular task.
 They have electrical components which power and control the
machinery.
 They contain some level of computer program that determines what,
when and how a robot does something.

Difference in Robot System and Other AI Program

Here is the difference between the two −

AI Programs Robots

They usually operate in computer-

They operate in real physical world
stimulated worlds.
 The input to an AI program is in symbols Inputs to robots is analog signal in the form of speech
and rules. waveform or images

They need general purpose computers to

They need special hardware with sensors and effectors.
operate on.

Robot Locomotion
Locomotion is the mechanism that makes a robot capable of moving in its
environment. There are various types of locomotions −

 Legged
 Wheeled
 Combination of Legged and Wheeled Locomotion
 Tracked slip/skid

Legged Locomotion
 This type of locomotion consumes more power while demonstrating walk,
jump, trot, hop, climb up or down, etc.
 It requires more number of motors to accomplish a movement. It is suited
for rough as well as smooth terrain where irregular or too smooth surface
makes it consume more power for a wheeled locomotion. It is little difficult
to implement because of stability issues.
 It comes with the variety of one, two, four, and six legs. If a robot has
multiple legs then leg coordination is necessary for locomotion.

The total number of possible gaits (a periodic sequence of lift and release
events for each of the total legs) a robot can travel depends upon the number of
its legs.

If a robot has k legs, then the number of possible events N = (2k-1)!.

In case of a two-legged robot (k=2), the number of possible events is N = (2k-

1)! = (2*2-1)! = 3! = 6.

Hence there are six possible different events −

 Lifting the Left leg

 Releasing the Left leg
 Lifting the Right leg
 Releasing the Right leg
 Lifting both the legs together
 Releasing both the legs together
In case of k=6 legs, there are 39916800 possible events. Hence the complexity
of robots is directly proportional to the number of legs.

Wheeled Locomotion
It requires fewer number of motors to accomplish a movement. It is little easy to
implement as there are less stability issues in case of more number of wheels. It
is power efficient as compared to legged locomotion.

 Standard wheel − Rotates around the wheel axle and around the
contact
 Castor wheel − Rotates around the wheel axle and the offset steering
joint.
 Swedish 45o and Swedish 90o wheels − Omni-wheel, rotates around
the contact point, around the wheel axle, and around the rollers.
 Ball or spherical wheel − Omnidirectional wheel, technically difficult to
implement.

Slip/Skid Locomotion
In this type, the vehicles use tracks as in a tank. The robot is steered by moving
the tracks with different speeds in the same or opposite direction. It offers
stability because of large contact area of track and ground.

Components of a Robot
Robots are constructed with the following −

 Power Supply − The robots are powered by batteries, solar power,

hydraulic, or pneumatic power sources.
 Actuators − They convert energy into movement.
 Electric motors (AC/DC) − They are required for rotational movement.
 Pneumatic Air Muscles − They contract almost 40% when air is sucked
in them.
 Muscle Wires − They contract by 5% when electric current is passed
through them.
 Piezo Motors and Ultrasonic Motors − Best for industrial robots.
 Sensors − They provide knowledge of real time information on the task
environment. Robots are equipped with vision sensors to be to compute
the depth in the environment. A tactile sensor imitates the mechanical
properties of touch receptors of human fingertips.

Computer Vision
This is a technology of AI with which the robots can see. The computer vision
plays vital role in the domains of safety, security, health, access, and
entertainment.

Computer vision automatically extracts, analyzes, and comprehends useful

information from a single image or an array of images. This process involves
development of algorithms to accomplish automatic visual comprehension.

Hardware of Computer Vision System

This involves −

 Power supply
 Image acquisition device such as camera
 A processor
 A software
 A display device for monitoring the system
 Accessories such as camera stands, cables, and connectors

Tasks of Computer Vision

 OCR − In the domain of computers, Optical Character Reader, a software
to convert scanned documents into editable text, which accompanies a
scanner.
 Face Detection − Many state-of-the-art cameras come with this feature,
which enables to read the face and take the picture of that perfect
expression. It is used to let a user access the software on correct match.
 Object Recognition − They are installed in supermarkets, cameras,
high-end cars such as BMW, GM, and Volvo.
 Estimating Position − It is estimating position of an object with respect
to camera as in position of tumor in human’s body.

Application Domains of Computer Vision

 Agriculture
 Autonomous vehicles
 Biometrics
 Character recognition
 Forensics, security, and surveillance
 Industrial quality inspection
 Face recognition
 Gesture analysis
 Geoscience
 Medical imagery
 Pollution monitoring
 Process control
 Remote sensing
 Robotics
 Transport

Applications of Robotics
The robotics has been instrumental in the various domains such as −

 Industries − Robots are used for handling material, cutting, welding,

color coating, drilling, polishing, etc.
  Military − Autonomous robots can reach inaccessible and hazardous
zones during war. A robot named Daksh, developed by Defense Research
and Development Organization (DRDO), is in function to destroy life-
threatening objects safely.
 Medicine − The robots are capable of carrying out hundreds of clinical
tests simultaneously, rehabilitating permanently disabled people, and
performing complex surgeries such as brain tumors.
 Exploration − The robot rock climbers used for space exploration,
underwater drones used for ocean exploration are to name a few.
 Entertainment − Disney’s engineers have created hundreds of robots
for movie making.

Artificial Intelligence - Neural

Networks
Yet another research area in AI, neural networks, is inspired from the natural
neural network of human nervous system.

What are Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs)?

The inventor of the first neurocomputer, Dr. Robert Hecht-Nielsen, defines a
neural network as −

"...a computing system made up of a number of simple, highly interconnected

processing elements, which process information by their dynamic state
response to external inputs.”

Basic Structure of ANNs

The idea of ANNs is based on the belief that working of human brain by making
the right connections, can be imitated using silicon and wires as
living neurons and dendrites.

The human brain is composed of 86 billion nerve cells called neurons. They are
connected to other thousand cells by Axons. Stimuli from external environment
or inputs from sensory organs are accepted by dendrites. These inputs create
electric impulses, which quickly travel through the neural network. A neuron can
then send the message to other neuron to handle the issue or does not send it
forward.
ANNs are composed of multiple nodes, which imitate biological neurons of
human brain. The neurons are connected by links and they interact with each
other. The nodes can take input data and perform simple operations on the
data. The result of these operations is passed to other neurons. The output at
each node is called its activation or node value.

Each link is associated with weight. ANNs are capable of learning, which takes
place by altering weight values. The following illustration shows a simple ANN −
Types of Artificial Neural Networks
There are two Artificial Neural Network topologies
− FeedForward and Feedback.

FeedForward ANN
In this ANN, the information flow is unidirectional. A unit sends information to
other unit from which it does not receive any information. There are no feedback
loops. They are used in pattern generation/recognition/classification. They have
fixed inputs and outputs.
FeedBack ANN
Here, feedback loops are allowed. They are used in content addressable
memories.
Working of ANNs
In the topology diagrams shown, each arrow represents a connection between
two neurons and indicates the pathway for the flow of information. Each
connection has a weight, an integer number that controls the signal between
the two neurons.

If the network generates a “good or desired” output, there is no need to adjust

the weights. However, if the network generates a “poor or undesired” output or
an error, then the system alters the weights in order to improve subsequent
results.

Machine Learning in ANNs

ANNs are capable of learning and they need to be trained. There are several
learning strategies −
  Supervised Learning − It involves a teacher that is scholar than the
ANN itself. For example, the teacher feeds some example data about
which the teacher already knows the answers.
For example, pattern recognizing. The ANN comes up with guesses while
recognizing. Then the teacher provides the ANN with the answers. The
network then compares it guesses with the teacher’s “correct” answers
and makes adjustments according to errors.
 Unsupervised Learning − It is required when there is no example data
set with known answers. For example, searching for a hidden pattern. In
this case, clustering i.e. dividing a set of elements into groups according
to some unknown pattern is carried out based on the existing data sets
present.
 Reinforcement Learning − This strategy built on observation. The ANN
makes a decision by observing its environment. If the observation is
negative, the network adjusts its weights to be able to make a different
required decision the next time.

Back Propagation Algorithm

It is the training or learning algorithm. It learns by example. If you submit to the
algorithm the example of what you want the network to do, it changes the
network’s weights so that it can produce desired output for a particular input on
finishing the training.

Back Propagation networks are ideal for simple Pattern Recognition and
Mapping Tasks.

Bayesian Networks (BN)

These are the graphical structures used to represent the probabilistic
relationship among a set of random variables. Bayesian networks are also
called Belief Networks or Bayes Nets. BNs reason about uncertain domain.

In these networks, each node represents a random variable with specific

propositions. For example, in a medical diagnosis domain, the node Cancer
represents the proposition that a patient has cancer.

The edges connecting the nodes represent probabilistic dependencies among

those random variables. If out of two nodes, one is affecting the other then they
must be directly connected in the directions of the effect. The strength of the
relationship between variables is quantified by the probability associated with
each node.

There is an only constraint on the arcs in a BN that you cannot return to a node
simply by following directed arcs. Hence the BNs are called Directed Acyclic
Graphs (DAGs).
BNs are capable of handling multivalued variables simultaneously. The BN
variables are composed of two dimensions −

 Range of prepositions
 Probability assigned to each of the prepositions.

Consider a finite set X = {X1, X2, …,Xn} of discrete random variables, where each
variable Xi may take values from a finite set, denoted by Val(Xi). If there is a
directed link from variable Xi to variable, Xj, then variable Xi will be a parent of
variable Xj showing direct dependencies between the variables.

The structure of BN is ideal for combining prior knowledge and observed data.
BN can be used to learn the causal relationships and understand various
problem domains and to predict future events, even in case of missing data.

Building a Bayesian Network

A knowledge engineer can build a Bayesian network. There are a number of
steps the knowledge engineer needs to take while building it.

Example problem − Lung cancer. A patient has been suffering from

breathlessness. He visits the doctor, suspecting he has lung cancer. The doctor
knows that barring lung cancer, there are various other possible diseases the
patient might have such as tuberculosis and bronchitis.

Gather Relevant Information of Problem

 Is the patient a smoker? If yes, then high chances of cancer and

bronchitis.
 Is the patient exposed to air pollution? If yes, what sort of air pollution?
 Take an X-Ray positive X-ray would indicate either TB or lung cancer.

Identify Interesting Variables

The knowledge engineer tries to answer the questions −

 Which nodes to represent?

 What values can they take? In which state can they be?

For now let us consider nodes, with only discrete values. The variable must take
on exactly one of these values at a time.

Common types of discrete nodes are −

 Boolean nodes − They represent propositions, taking binary values

TRUE (T) and FALSE (F).
  Ordered values − A node Pollution might represent and take values
from {low, medium, high} describing degree of a patient’s exposure to
pollution.
 Integral values − A node called Age might represent patient’s age with
possible values from 1 to 120. Even at this early stage, modeling choices
are being made.

Possible nodes and values for the lung cancer example −

Nod
e Typ
Value Nodes Creation
Nam e
e

{LOW,
Poluti Binar HIGH,
on y MEDIU
M}

Smok Boole {TRUE,

er an FASLE}

Lung-
Boole {TRUE,
Cance
an FASLE}
r

{Positive
Binar ,
X-Ray
y Negative
}

Create Arcs between Nodes

Topology of the network should capture qualitative relationships between

variables.

For example, what causes a patient to have lung cancer? - Pollution and
smoking. Then add arcs from node Pollution and node Smoker to node Lung-
Cancer.

Similarly if patient has lung cancer, then X-ray result will be positive. Then add
arcs from node Lung-Cancer to node X-Ray.
Specify Topology

Conventionally, BNs are laid out so that the arcs point from top to bottom. The
set of parent nodes of a node X is given by Parents(X).

The Lung-Cancer node has two parents (reasons or

causes): Pollution and Smoker, while node Smoker is an ancestor of node X-
Ray. Similarly, X-Ray is a child (consequence or effects) of node Lung-
Cancer and successor of nodes Smoker and Pollution.

Conditional Probabilities

Now quantify the relationships between connected nodes: this is done by

specifying a conditional probability distribution for each node. As only discrete
variables are considered here, this takes the form of a Conditional Probability
Table (CPT).

First, for each node we need to look at all the possible combinations of values of
those parent nodes. Each such combination is called an instantiation of the
parent set. For each distinct instantiation of parent node values, we need to
specify the probability that the child will take.

For example, the Lung-Cancer node’s parents are Pollution and Smoking. They
take the possible values = { (H,T), ( H,F), (L,T), (L,F)}. The CPT specifies the
probability of cancer for each of these cases as <0.05, 0.02, 0.03, 0.001>
respectively.

Each node will have conditional probability associated as follows −

Applications of Neural Networks

They can perform tasks that are easy for a human but difficult for a machine −

 Aerospace − Autopilot aircrafts, aircraft fault detection.

 Automotive − Automobile guidance systems.
 Military − Weapon orientation and steering, target tracking, object
discrimination, facial recognition, signal/image identification.
 Electronics − Code sequence prediction, IC chip layout, chip failure
analysis, machine vision, voice synthesis.
 Financial − Real estate appraisal, loan advisor, mortgage screening,
corporate bond rating, portfolio trading program, corporate financial
 analysis, currency value prediction, document readers, credit application
evaluators.
 Industrial − Manufacturing process control, product design and analysis,
quality inspection systems, welding quality analysis, paper quality
prediction, chemical product design analysis, dynamic modeling of
chemical process systems, machine maintenance analysis, project
bidding, planning, and management.
 Medical − Cancer cell analysis, EEG and ECG analysis, prosthetic design,
transplant time optimizer.
 Speech − Speech recognition, speech classification, text to speech
conversion.
 Telecommunications − Image and data compression, automated
information services, real-time spoken language translation.
 Transportation − Truck Brake system diagnosis, vehicle scheduling,
routing systems.
 Software − Pattern Recognition in facial recognition, optical character
recognition, etc.
 Time Series Prediction − ANNs are used to make predictions on stocks
and natural calamities.
 Signal Processing − Neural networks can be trained to process an audio
signal and filter it appropriately in the hearing aids.
 Control − ANNs are often used to make steering decisions of physical
vehicles.
 Anomaly Detection − As ANNs are expert at recognizing patterns, they
can also be trained to generate an output when something unusual occurs
that misfits the pattern.

Artificial Intelligence - Issues

AI is developing with such an incredible speed, sometimes it seems magical.
There is an opinion among researchers and developers that AI could grow so
immensely strong that it would be difficult for humans to control.

Humans developed AI systems by introducing into them every possible

intelligence they could, for which the humans themselves now seem threatened.

Threat to Privacy
An AI program that recognizes speech and understands natural language is
theoretically capable of understanding each conversation on e-mails and
telephones.

Threat to Human Dignity

AI systems have already started replacing the human beings in few industries. It
should not replace people in the sectors where they are holding dignified
positions which are pertaining to ethics such as nursing, surgeon, judge, police
officer, etc.

Threat to Safety
The self-improving AI systems can become so mighty than humans that could be
very difficult to stop from achieving their goals, which may lead to unintended
consequences.

Artificial Intelligence -
Terminology
Here is the list of frequently used terms in the domain of AI −

Sr.No Term & Meaning

Agent
Agents are systems or software programs capable of autonomous, purposeful and reasoning
1
directed towards one or more goals. They are also called assistants, brokers, bots, droids,
intelligent agents, and software agents.

Autonomous Robot
2
Robot free from external control or influence and able to control itself independently.

Backward Chaining
3
Strategy of working backward for Reason/Cause of a problem.

Blackboard
4 It is the memory inside computer, which is used for communication between the
cooperating expert systems.

Environment
5
It is the part of real or computational world inhabited by the agent.

Forward Chaining
6
Strategy of working forward for conclusion/solution of a problem.

Heuristics
7
It is the knowledge based on Trial-and-error, evaluations, and experimentation.

Knowledge Engineering
8
Acquiring knowledge from human experts and other resources.
 Percepts
9
It is the format in which the agent obtains information about the environment.

Pruning
10
Overriding unnecessary and irrelevant considerations in AI systems.

Rule
11 It is a format of representing knowledge base in Expert System. It is in the form of IF-
THEN-ELSE.

Shell
12 A shell is a software that helps in designing inference engine, knowledge base, and user
interface of an expert system.

Task
13
It is the goal the agent is tries to accomplish.

Turing Test
14 A test developed by Allan Turing to test the intelligence of a machine as compared to
human intelligence