AI Practitioner

  What is A* Search Algorithm? A* Search (pronounced "A-star") is one of the most popular and powerful pathfinding and graph traversal algorithms. It finds the shortest path between nodes using both the cost to reach a node and a heuristic estimation of the remaining cost to the goal. Key Concepts g(n):  The actual cost from the start node to the current node $n$. h(n):  The heuristic estimated cost from node $n$ to the goal. f(n):  The total estimated cost of the cheapest solution through node $n$, calculated as:$f(n) = g(n) + h(n)$ A* Algorithm Steps Initialize the open set with the start node. Initialize a map to record the lowest cost to reach each node ($g$ value). While the open set is not empty: Pick the node with the lowest $f(n)$ value. If the node is the goal, reconstruct and return the path. Else, for each neighbor: Calculate tentative $g$ score. If this score is better than previously recorded, update it. Set neighbor's parent to the current node. If the ...