---
title: "The Avoidance of (Relative) Catastrophe, Heuristic Competence, Genuine Dynamic Weighting and Computational Issues in Heuristic Problem Solving"
authors:
  - "Ira Pohl"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1973/2"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1973/0002.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Third International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1973
pages: "12-16"
track: "Theory of Heuristic Search"
keywords:
---

# The Avoidance of (Relative) Catastrophe, Heuristic Competence, Genuine Dynamic Weighting and Computational Issues in Heuristic Problem Solving

Ira Pohl

*Proceedings of the Third International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 12-16.

## Abstract

To solve difficult problems heuristically, requires detailed attention to computational efficiency. This paper describes how a heuristic problem solving system, HPA, attempts to find a near optimal solution to the traveling salesman problem. A critical innovation over previous search algorithms is an explicit dynamic weighting of the heuristic information. The heuristic information is weighted inversely proportional to its depth in the search tree--in consequence it produces a narrower depth first search than traditional weightings. At the same time, dynamic weighting retains the catastrophe protection of ordinary branch and bound algorithms.