Abstract: A programmable manipulation machine for picking up a succession of small components, such as semiconductor chips, and placing them precisely in predetermined positions on a work-piece, such as a substrate. The machine includes a vacuum chuck assembly which is movable by a servomotor along a relatively long horizontal axis between a chip pick-up station and a dip assembly station and which is also movable, by means of digital stepper motors, linearly in a transverse horizontal axis and a vertical axis, and rotationally about the vertical axis. Also included are a substrate-supporting work table which is also movable, by means of a digital stepper motor, in the transverse horizontal direction, and a control unit for direction and sequencing movement of the chuck assembly and work table in accordance with operator-changeable positional data stored in a memory associated with each movement axis.