This invention relates to gyroscope apparatus.
The invention is more particularly concerned with single-axis servoed rate gyroscopes.
Gyroscopes of this kind have a rotor, such as in the form of an inertia ring, that is rotated at high speed by a motor, about a spin axis. The rotor is mounted in a gimbal that is in turn mounted by bearings or pivots for angular displacement about a rotational axis, at right angles to the spin axis. Any displacement of the gyroscope having a rotational component about an input axis, at right angles to the spin and rotational axis, produces angular displacement of the gimbal about the rotational axis. In servoed rate gyroscopes this angular displacement is sensed and a restoring torque is applied to the gimbal so as to maintain its datum position. Usually, the torque is applied by means of an electromagnetic torquer, a measure of the angular velocity of the gyroscope about the input axis being derived from the current supplied to the torquer in order to maintain the gimbal in its datum position.
Various configurations of gyroscope have been proposed in the past but these are generally bulky or difficult to manufacture and assemble accurately at low cost.