Global Positioning Systems, Inertial Navigation, and Integration

Chapter 9.1.6: INERTIAL NAVIGATION SYSTEMS: Vibratory Coriolis Gyroscopes (VCGs)

9.1.6 Vibratory Coriolis Gyroscopes (VCGs)

9.1.6.1 VCG Principles The first functional vibrational coriolis gyroscope was probably the 1851 Foucault pendulum, in which the coriolis effect from the rotation of the earth causes the plane of pendulum mass oscillation to rotate. Modern designs have replaced the gravity pendulum (which does not travel well) with relatively high-frequency mechanical resonances, but the principle of operation remains essentially the same. A mass particle resonating with velocity v0 cos (Ωt) fixed to a body rotating at rate ωinput would experience a time-varying coriolis acceleration

which is at the same frequency as the driving acceleration, but at right angles to the particle velocity.

Equation 9.12 only describes the mass particle acceleration due to rotation. There are dozens of electromechanical gyro designs using this mass particle dynamic model to provide an output signal proportional to rotation rate [88].

4"Zero Lock Gyro" and "ZLG" are trademarks of Northrop Grumman Corp.

Transmission of vibrational energy to the supporting structure is a significant error mechanism for most vibratory sensors. Two designs which do provide good vibration isolation are the tuning fork gyro and the hemispherical resonator gyro.

9.1.6.2 Tuning Fork Gyroscope A tuning fork gyro illustrated in Fig. 9.11 is driven in a balanced vibration mode with its tines coming together and apart in unison (Fig. 9.11a), creating no vibrational stress in the handle. Its sensitive axis is parallel to the handle. Rotation about this axis is orthogonal to the direction of tine velocity, and the resulting coriolis acceleration will be in the direction of ω ν, which excites the output vibration mode shown in Fig. 9.11b. This unbalanced "twisting" mode will create a torque couple through the handle, and some designs use a double-ended fork to transfer this mode to a second set of output tines.

9.1.6.3 Hemispherical Resonator Gyroscope (HRG) In 1890, physicist G. H. Bryan observed that the nodes of the resonant modes of wine glasses (produced by rubbing a wet finger around the rim) precessed when the wine glass was rotated. This became the basis for the hemispherical resonator gyroscope (HRG) (also called the "wine glass" gyroscope), which uses resonant modes of bowlshaped structures on stems (similar to a wine glass) with vibratory displacements normal to the edges of the bowl. When the device is rotated about its stem axis (its input axis), the nodes of the vibration modes rotate around the stem at a rate proportional to input rotation rate. Like many gyroscopes, they exhibit angle random walk (< 10-3 degree per root hour in some HRG designs). They are very rugged. They can be made to operate through the radiation bursts from nuclear events, because mechanical resonances will persist and the phase change will continue to accumulate during periods of high neutron fluence when the drive and sensing electronics are turned off, then recover the accumulated angular displacements after turnon. (Most momentum wheel gyroscopes can do this, too.)

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