Recently, much research had been undertaken to develop and evaluate flexible assembly systems (FAS), a technology rated as the number one growth opportunity for robots. While robots are generally the basis of these systems, they are often difficult to justify economically and tend to increase the complexity of the workplace. A recent trend in flexible assembly has been the utilization of reprogrammable pick and place devices for specific tasks. These devices are generally non-servo controlled, pneumatically powered, ‘low technology’ robots. Although they have a limited operation sequence, they offer low investment and fast cycle times. Because of the increasing interest in low technology robots for assembly, the objective of this project was to develop and evaluate a pick and place part handling device. Physical characteristics of the prototype robot such as repeatability, operating pressure, and stroke length were tested to determine performance trends that developed.