  In this paper, a round-table group optimization (RTGO) algorithm is
presented. RTGO is a simple metaheuristic framework using the insights of
research on group creativity. In a cooperative group, the agents work in
iterative sessions to search innovative ideas in a common problem landscape.
Each agent has one base idea stored in its individual memory, and one social
idea fed by a round-table group support mechanism in each session. The idea
combination and improvement processes are respectively realized by using a
recombination search (XS) strategy and a local search (LS) strategy, to build
on the base and social ideas. RTGO is then implemented for solving two
difficult sequencing problems, i.e., the flowshop scheduling problem and the
quadratic assignment problem. The domain-specific LS strategies are adopted
from existing algorithms, whereas a general XS class, called socially biased
combination (SBX), is realized in a modular form. The performance of RTGO is
then evaluated on commonly-used benchmark datasets. Good performance on
different problems can be achieved by RTGO using appropriate SBX operators.
Furthermore, RTGO is able to outperform some existing methods, including
methods using the same LS strategies.
