AI Firefighter Rescue System

A visual comparison of A*, BFS, and DFS pathfinding algorithms on a dynamic rescue grid. Developed as academic coursework for Artificial Intelligence - Lab (AL2002) at FAST NUCES Karachi.

Demo

Editor — grid painting

Comparison — A* vs BFS vs DFS

Timeline — trace inspector

Grid Cell Types

Cell	Value	Cost	Passable?
Open	0	1	Yes
Smoke	1	5	Yes (costly)
Fire	2	∞	No
Wall	3	∞	No
Start	4	1	Yes
Goal	5	1	Yes

Algorithms

• A*: Informed search with Manhattan heuristic. Finds optimal cost-weighted paths.
• BFS: Uninformed search. Guarantees optimal hop-count paths (not cost-weighted).
• DFS: Uninformed search. Explores one branch fully before backtracking.

Tech Stack

• Backend: FastAPI on Python 3.10+
• Frontend: React + TypeScript + HTML5 Canvas
• Package managers: uv (backend), Bun (frontend)

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• uv
• Bun

Run The App

Open two terminals from the repository root.

Backend

uv --project backend sync
uv --project backend run uvicorn backend.main:app --reload --port 8000

Backend URL: http://127.0.0.1:8000

Frontend

cd frontend
bun install
bun run start

Frontend URL: http://localhost:3000

Build And Verify

Frontend checks

cd frontend
bun run build
bun x tsc --noEmit

Backend checks

uv --project backend run python -m compileall backend

Quick backend smoke test

uv --project backend run uvicorn backend.main:app --port 8000

API

• POST /api/search
• Request body: grid, start, goal, algorithm
• Response body: algorithm, path, explored, path_cost, cells_explored, execution_time_ms

Contributors

• Syed Haider Murtaza
• Muhammad Mujtaba Kamran
• Muhammad Rayyan

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.