Title :
Improved north seeking gyro
Author :
Watson, William S.
Author_Institution :
Watson Industries Inc., Eau Claire, WI, USA
Abstract :
The common north-seeking gyroscope (NSG) is a free gyroscope with damped precession such that it will align itself parallel to the Earth´s spin axis. The author presents an improved NSG which still uses the Earth´s spin to sense north but, instead of physical displacement, the orientation to north is determined by sensing the Earth spin rate vector through scanning horizontally with an angular rate sensor and using electronic filtering with digital signal processing to then refine the accuracy. Underlying theoretical limits of accuracy and a discussion of the primary applications are presented
Keywords :
angular measurement; gyroscopes; signal processing; Earth spin rate vector; accuracy limits; angular rate sensor; digital signal processing; electronic filtering; horizontal scanning; north-seeking gyroscope; northern orientation; primary applications; Digital filters; Digital signal processing; Earth; Filtering; Mechanical sensors; Refining; Ring lasers; Sensor systems; Sensor systems and applications; Vibration control;
Conference_Titel :
Position Location and Navigation Symposium, 1992. Record. 500 Years After Columbus - Navigation Challenges of Tomorrow. IEEE PLANS '92., IEEE
Conference_Location :
Monterey, CA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-0468-3
DOI :
10.1109/PLANS.1992.185829