Sampling conveyors for shipment and stockpile control generally requires taking a large primary sample, which then needs to be reduced in volume and particle size. Traditionally, this has been achieved by placing the primary sample at the conveyor end and trip-point and transferring the sample to a secondary sample tower. The secondary sample tower can be up to five levels high, which when combined with access ways, transfer conveyors and reject conveyors, becomes a substantial and expensive structure. Maintenance requires personnel to walk up and down these structures to inspect and maintain the equipment. The alternative to such a secondary sample tower is to operate the secondary sampling system at ground level using a robotic handling system. The large samples can be manipulated by the robot for crushing the sample, followed by subsequent size reduction in accordance with ISO standards to achieve the final sample for testing. Physical tests such as sizing and moisture occur in a more controlled environment. The inspection and maintenance of the equipment, within the robot system, can be easily checked by remote video monitoring and by systematic monitoring within the control system. These factors all weigh up to less on-site personnel and less cost for sample tower structures. Several primary samplers may feed the same robotic secondary sampling system, further reducing costs. This is possibly the way we will see all sampling systems in the future._x000D_
*This is an abstract only. No full paper is available for this abstract.* CITATION:Ziegelaar, B, Stevens, D and Hidding, M, 2012._x000D_
Automated sampling - Robotics for the future!, in Proceedings Sampling 2012 , pp 21-22 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).