A* Search Algorithm for solving 8-Puzzle problem

A* search implementation for 8-puzzle problem in C++. A* search algorithm is a type of informed search strategy. Informed search algorithm are those that know where to look for the solution. A* search uses multiple heuristic to know how far the goal is. In this repository, Hamming and Manhatten heuristic are implemented. A heuristic is a estimated straight line distance to the goal G from a node N. A* search uses heuristic value h and cost value g from intial state to estimate the cost value any level at node t. Mathematically it's given by:

f = g + h ; where h is a heuristic value and g is the cost value to the node.

Installation

Installation is pretty staright forward. Follow the instructions below:

  git clone https://github.com/faizan1234567/8-Puzzle-A-Star-Search.git
  cd 8-Puzzle-A-Star-Star

It will work with any C++ IDE/compiler. However, I would recommend running it in VS code. Install the compiler if you have not by following the instructions here.

After installing compiler and VS code run the following command to run the algorithm.

g++ main.cpp -o main
./main.exe

The result will be written to an output .txt file.

New Features

Duplicate entries checker code for a given initial state
User input on run time
Convergence and devergence check
Optimized memory
Option to write program input/output to the .txt file.

Note

Some intiale state don't converge to the goal state. It is important to check it before running the algorithm. In this repository, it is implemented in the node class. In order to understand why some states converge and other don't. Please read this nice explanation.