In manufacturing industry and nuclear industry, a large fraction of the work is repetitive and judicious application of automation will most certainly result in optimum utilization of machine and manpower. 
A pneumatic `Pick and Place' Robot has been developed to achieve automation in applications where great sophistication is not needed and simple tasks like picking up of small parts at one location and placing them at another location can be done with great ease.

The  machine will be of great use to perform repetitive tasks of picking and placing of small parts (up to 500 gms) in an  industrial  production line.

Its  use  can  be  extended  and  exploited  by  few modifications to do difficult and hazardous tasks for nuclear applications.

The machine provides motion to the end effector in the theta and Z directions. The end effector can be a pair of pneumatic grippers, a set of multiple grippers, magnetic pick-up, vacuum pick-up etc. The device has its own in-built logic and all the movements of the device are controlled by the combination of control valve and reversible valve which form the vital part of the machine. A single pulse of air given to the control valve activates the reversible valve and admits air alternately to the two pneumatic cylinders during one cycle. This causes to and fro linear motion of the common rack which is converted into the rotary motion of the pinion and ultimately imparts angular sweep (theta) and vertical motion (Z) at the end of each stroke to the head carrying the pick up arm with the end effector. Angular sweep (theta) as well as the vertical motion (Z) are adjustable by means of mechanical stoppers. The operating speed of the pick up arm can be varied to suit the requirement by operating the flow control valves provided on the two cylinder heads. During one operating cycle the pick up arm carrying the end effector starts from its home position, goes to the other end, picks up the part and returns to its original home position. The picked up part is delivered to the home position when the next cycle is triggered.