Used for static data sets: those that are unlikely to change.
Used to navigate through a graph to find the best possible route from one node to another.
Is ridiculously long for large data sets and the organisation of open and closed sets (the nodes available that haven't been explored) is key to the run time and efficiency of the algorithm.
Works on weighted graphs, which can be directed or undirected.
Each node you decide to visit comes with a cost. This is not necessarily to do with geographical distance.
HOW IT WORKS:
Set all node costs (except start) to infinite cost. Then the lowest cost is selected.
Caption: : Weighted graph: this is before the start and end of the graph is decided.
Slide 2
A* Algorithm:
Uses weights (costs) as well as heuristics (values separate to cost which make a predetermined assumption about how far it is going to take us to get to the next node. This heuristic is an all approximation and is used to solve solutions to path finding much quicker than Dijkstra but its not always the optimal solution.