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| Gyro. From spinning mass to ring laser. Mechanical Gyroscopes The most commonly used Gyro ( at least in the past ) is the mechanical gyroscope, which you can use either to maintain a fixed heading as a gyrocompass or to provide inertial navigation information if the gyrocompass is combined with accelerometers. This gyro is a mechanical device and thus subject to wear and drift. Over the last many years the mechanical part has been refined so that a gyro-based navigation system can provide decent accuracy and reasonable reliability. Sophisticated real-time algorithms are used to compensate for known errors and drifts, and to implement statistical models of sources of errors. Other improvements were made to the size of the Gyro, which went from size Oil barrel to about a 2 gallon container size, and to the augmentation ( start up ) time, which went from half a day to about one hour. The magnetic interference, shock sensitivity, price level and start up time have invited a range of new developments competing with the mechanical gyroscope. Fiber Optical ( Laser ) Gyros In the early days of lasers, it was predicted that when two laser beams are made to oscillate in the same optical cavity that encloses an area (a triangle, a square), such that they propagate in opposite directions around the periphery, their frequencies would differ slightly if such a cavity would rotate around an axis normal to the cavity plane. Such a cavity is called a ring laser. After their counterrotating trips the beams emerge and interfere with each other. If the unit does not rotate, the beams travel the same distance and thus cancel each other out when they emerge. However, if the unit rotates while the beams are passing through, one beam travels a shorter distance, and the other travels a longer distance, due to relativistic effects. The differing travel times produce a shift in the interference pattern, which an optical detector can sense. Processor-based computational algorithms can compensate for many errors and also integrate motion data from other position and motion sources to provide an easy-to-use, calculated, highly accurate output. MEMS One approach uses MEMS (microelectrical-mechanical-system) structures to provide the moving-element functions but on a much smaller mechanical scale and with new techniques to overcome traditional error sources. Aerospace interests, specifically NASA, has tremendously helped to push developments of MEMS technology. MEMS Tilt sensors use silicon micro-machined devices to provide distinct advantages in reliability, stability and compactness over fluid, electrolytic and pendulum-based sensors. GPS Low cost GPS chips sets have now come along, communicating with satellites to pinpoint locations and positions competing with Gyroscopes for navigational applications. The combination of GPS with Gyros , ( can ) provide a rational and complete navigational tool / relative-motion system. Read outs would include position, speed, heading, pitch and roll and rate of turn, to call out some of the major data and can now be used for tunnels, in underground oil and gas wells, in submersible vehicles ( ROV’s, ROTV’s and AUV’s ) and guided objectives. ( some of those are called rockets ) |
| For detailed information on Spinning mass Gyros and Ringlaser Gyros, please contact ABTEL. Tel 281-350-5522 or send us an e-mail. sales@abteluti.com We are here to serve you. |
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