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The teaching-learning-based optimization algorithm (TLBO) is an efficient optimizer. However, it has several shortcomings such as premature convergence and stagnation at local optima. In this paper, the strengthened teaching-learning-based optimization algorithm (STLBO) is proposed to enhance the basic TLBO's exploration and exploitation properties by introducing three strengthening mechanisms: the linear increasing teaching factor, the elite system composed of new teacher and class leader, and the Cauchy mutation. Subsequently, seven variants of STLBO are designed based on the combined deployment of the three improved mechanisms. Performance of the novel STLBOs is evaluated by implementing them on thirteen numerical optimization tasks. The results show that STLBO7 is at the top of the list, significantly better than the original TLBO. Moreover, the remaining six variants of STLBO also outperform TLBO. Finally, a set of comparisons are implemented between STLBO7 and other advanced optimization techniques. The numerical results and convergence curves prove that STLBO7 clearly outperforms other competitors, has stronger local optimal avoidance, faster convergence speed and higher solution accuracy. All the above manifests that STLBOs has improved the search performance of TLBO. Data Availability Statements: All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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In recent years, mixed-model assembly lines (MMALs) have been widely adopted by the automotive enterprises to face the requirements of mass customization. Meanwhile, the diversified components of various end products are placing the material feeding processes at great challenges. Under this circumstance, to raise the material feeding efficiency, this paper proposes an automatic monorail shuttle system (AMSS) based on line-integrated supermarkets applied to the MMALs by introducing the load-exchangeable shuttles and crossovers. Considering the importance of cost-control in manufacturing enterprises, we establish a mathematical model with the objective to minimize the total costs of the material feeding system, which includes the installation costs of crossovers and the input and operation costs of load-exchangeable shuttles. Then, due to the NP-hard nature of the proposed problem, a shuffled frog leaping-based hyper heuristic (SBHH) algorithm is developed to determine the allocation and scheduling of the shuttles and crossovers, which adopts the shuffled frog leaping algorithm (SFLA) as the high-level heuristic to select the low-level heuristics. To improve the performance of the algorithm, the concept of ‘dynamic decision unit’ is presented to raise the solution accuracy and the convergence speed. Finally, the simulation results verified the superiority of the proposed SBHH algorithm both in solution quality and convergence speed by comparing with other optimization algorithm in the existing literature.

The teaching–learning-based optimization algorithm (TLBO) is an efficient optimizer. However, it has several shortcomings such as premature convergence and stagnation at local optima. In this paper, the strengthened teaching–learning-based optimization algorithm (STLBO) is proposed to enhance the basic TLBO’s exploration and exploitation properties by introducing three strengthening mechanisms: the linear increasing teaching factor, the elite system composed of new teacher and class leader, and the Cauchy mutation. Subsequently, seven variants of STLBO are designed based on the combined deployment of the three improved mechanisms. Performance of the novel STLBOs is evaluated by implementing them on thirteen numerical optimization tasks. The results show that STLBO7 is at the top of the list, significantly better than the original TLBO. Moreover, the remaining six variants of STLBO also outperform TLBO. Finally, a set of comparisons are implemented between STLBO7 and other advanced optimization techniques. The numerical results and convergence curves prove that STLBO7 clearly outperforms other competitors, has stronger local optimal avoidance, faster convergence speed and higher solution accuracy. All the above manifests that STLBOs has improved the search performance of TLBO. Data Availability Statements: All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.