A* Search on the 7(8)-Tile Puzzle

Overview
This project implements the A* search algorithm to solve a variant of the classic 8-tile puzzle. The puzzle is played on a 3x3 grid with 7 numbered tiles and two empty spaces. The objective is to rearrange the tiles into numerical order, with the empty spaces at the bottom-right corner.

Features
Successor Generation: Calculates and displays all valid successor states from a given configuration, sorted in ascending order based on the state representation. A Search Solution*:

• Finds the optimal path from a given starting state to the goal state.
• Uses the Manhattan distance as the heuristic function.
• Tracks and prints the path, heuristic values, number of moves, and maximum queue length.

Usage The project includes two main functions:

• print_succ(state): Prints all successor states and their heuristic values for a given input state.
• solve(state): Solves the puzzle using the A* algorithm and prints the solution path and statistics.

This project was created as part of an assignment for CS540 @ UW Madison.