Automation of testing and qualification of inertial rate sensors

A very high assurance of performance is required in case of inertial rate sensors known as gyroscopes, before finalizing the product. This assurance is provided with a high quality automated test station (ATS). The major objectives of ATS are accurate measurement of gyroscope characteristic, the comprehensive characterization and performance evaluation, while reducing testing time cycle. To assist gyro testing an ATS is created to replace manual testing processes which are very time consuming and requires expensive test equipment. The present system automates most of the processes for a fraction of the cost. The system is based on Pentium IV computer with a 16-bit data acquisition card, serial ports, rate table with integrated thermal chamber and printer. All the instruments are controlled by the host computer through RS-232. The software ldquoGyro VIEWrdquo written in Visual C++ has capabilities of data acquisition, online estimation of gyroscope parameters, and run time analysis of graphs which makes it very flexible than existing softwares which support post processing. The algorithms are developed for run time processing that include mean, moving average filter, standard deviation and noise. Software allows carrying out different tests such as over thermal test, scale factor test (rotation test), misalignment test, and run-to-run test e.t.c.