Teaching-learning-based optimization with dynamic group strategy for global optimization

Global optimization remains one of the most challenging tasks for evolutionary computation and swarm intelligence. In recent years, there have been some significant developments in these areas regarding the solution of global optimization problems. In this paper, we propose an improved teaching-learning-based optimization (TLBO) algorithm with dynamic group strategy (DGS) for global optimization problems. Different to the original TLBO algorithm, DGSTLBO enables each learner to learn from the mean of his corresponding group, rather than the mean of the class, in the teacher phase. Furthermore, each learner employs the random learning strategy or the quantum-behaved learning strategy in his corresponding group in the learner phase. Regrouping occurs dynamically after a certain number of generations, helping to maintain the diversity of the population and discourage premature convergence. To verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, experiments are conducted on 18 numerical benchmark functions in 10, 30, and 50 dimensions. The results show that the proposed DGSTLBO algorithm is an effective method for global optimization problems. (c) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.