Artificial Intelligence

A Neural Network Solution to the n-Queens Problem

Volume 3, Issue 3
Summer 1993

The n-queens problem is a classical example of a constraint-satisfaction problem. It often finds its way into AI classes as an exercise in programming a tree-search algorithm known as backtracking. In this article, we will use a neural network, called the Hopfield network, to find valid solutions. The methods we develop for encoding the constraints into the Hopfield network apply to many other constraint-satisfaction and optimization problems.