Bidirectional Bounded-Suboptimal Heuristic Search with Consistent Heuristics

Shahaf S. Shperberg, Natalie Morad, Lior Siag, Ariel Felner, Dor Atzmon

Published: 2026, Last Modified: 05 May 2026AAAI 2026EveryoneRevisionsBibTeXCC BY-SA 4.0
Abstract: Recent advancements in bidirectional heuristic search have yielded significant theoretical insights and novel algorithms. While most previous work has concentrated on optimal search methods, this paper focuses on bounded-suboptimal bidirectional search, where a bound on the suboptimality of the solution cost is specified. We build upon the state-of-the-art optimal bidirectional search algorithm, BAE*, designed for consistent heuristics, and introduce several variants of BAE* specifically tailored for the bounded-suboptimal context. Through experimental evaluation, we compare the performance of these new variants against other bounded-suboptimal bidirectional algorithms as well as the standard weighted A* algorithm. Our results demonstrate that each algorithm excels under distinct conditions, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.
Loading