As part of the group business design project module, I was working in a team of 5 developing an on-site commercial sorting system for soft produce. Our chosen concept consisted of a series of actuated sliding drawers that held trays of fruit punnets that a pick and place machine would deposit the product into. Due to the capabilities of the pick and place machine, the trays had to be able to move to 3 decreet positions. My role within the team was developing the actuation system that would move the sliding drawers. Due to the point-to-point nature of the motion, the need for reliable operation in the harsh agricultural environment, and the food safety requirements that the machine must meet, I identified pneumatics as the technology of choice for this application. The greatest challenges in developing the actuation system were using standard pneumatic actuators to achieve intermediate positions in a reliable and cost-efficient way and developing a complete pneumatic circuit that meets both food hygiene safety and machine safety regulations. This was achieved using 4 major components: a compressor, a valve terminal, an air preparation unit, and a cylinder assembly. The cylinder assembly consists of two off-the-shelf Festo actuators mounted in series, they can be activated independently to give three discrete positions. Overall, the actuation system met most of the requirement including the numerous regulatory constraints by utilizing a high ratio of off-the shelf components.