Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing

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1. About the book
The book covers 24 chapters altogether. It starts with the behavioral
perspective of the ‘human cognition’ and covers in detail the tools and
techniques required for its intelligent realization on machines. The classical
chapters on search, symbolic logic, planning and machine learning have been
covered in sufficient details, including the latest research in the subject. The
modern aspects of soft computing have been introduced from the first
principles and discussed in a semi-informal manner, so that a beginner of the
subject is able to grasp it with minimal effort.



2. Special features
The book includes the following special features.
i) Unified theme of presentation: Most of the existing texts on AI cover a set
of chapters of diverse thoughts, without demonstrating their inter-relationship.
The readers, therefore, are misled with the belief that AI is merely a
collection of intelligent algorithms, which precisely is not correct. The
proposed book is developed from the perspective of cognitive science, which
provides the readers with the view that the psychological model of cognition
can be visualized as a cycle of 5 mental states:


ii) Comprehensive coverage of the mathematical models: This probably is
the first book that provides a comprehensive coverage of the mathematical
models on AI and Soft Computing. The existing texts on “mathematical
modeling in AI” are beyond the scope of undergraduate students.
Consequently, while taking courses at graduate level, the students face much
difficulty in studying from monographs and journals. The book, however,
bridges the potential gap between the textbooks and advanced monographs in
the subject by presenting the mathematical models from a layman’s
understanding of the problems.
iii) Case studies: This is the only book that demonstrates the realization of
the proposed tools and techniques of AI and Soft Computing through case
studies. The readers, through these case studies, will understand the
significance of the joint usage of the AI and Soft Computing tools and
techniques in interesting problems of the real world. Case studies for two
distinct problems with special emphasis to their realization have been covered
in the book in two separate chapters.