Nondeterministic Environments and Partial Observations

CSC 261 - Artificial Intelligence - Weinman



Answer the following questions. Record your answers in your Reading Journal.
  1. Give an example of a contingency problem you have faced, briefly explaining why it meets the reading's definition.
  2. Identify the sentence from the reading you feel best illustrates the common issues of a sensorless agent and a nondeterministic problem environment. That is, what issues do these two different types of problems have in common?
  3. Russell and Norvig state "With nondetermnistic [sic] actions the PREDICT step grows the belief state, but the UPDATE step shrinks it back down" (p. 146, bottom). Briefly (3-5 sentences) unpack and explain this assertion in your own terms.
  4. By now you may have noticed patterns in the types of questions asked for your journal. (Review prior or even future reading journal questions if you are unsure.) Derive and answer your own reading journal question (avoiding the "What don't you understand?" type).