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This paper deals with a new automatic guided vehicle (AGV) scheduling problem from the material handling process in a linear manufacturing workshop. The problem is to determine a sequence of Cells for AGV to travel to minimize the standard deviation of the waiting time of the Cells and the total travel distance of AGV. For this purpose, we first propose an integer linear programming model based on a comprehensive investigation. Then, we present an improved nearest-neighbor-based heuristic so as to fast generate a good solution in view of the problem-specific characteristics. Next, we propose an effective discrete artificial bee colony algorithm with some novel and advanced techniques including a heuristic-based initialization, six neighborhood structures and a new evolution strategy in the onlooker bee phase. Finally, the proposed algorithms are empirically evaluated based on several typical instances from the real-world linear manufacturing workshop. A comprehensive and thorough experiment shows that the presented algorithm produces superior results which are also demonstrated to be statistically significant than the existing algorithms. INDEX TERMS Automated guided vehicle, heuristic, discrete artificial bee colony algorithm, scheduling, linear manufacturing workshop.

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