State Space Search

A state space represents a problem in terms of states and operators that change states.

             operator
    State --------------> New State

A state space consists of:

• A representation of the states the system can be in. In a board game, for example, the board represents the current state of the game.

• A set of operators that can change one state into another state. In a board game, the operators are the legal moves from any given state. Often the operators are represented as programs that change a state representation to represent the new state.

• An initial state.

• A set of final states; some of these may be desirable, others undesirable. This set is often represented implicitly by a program that detects terminal states.