A new hybrid gyroscope with electrostatic negative stiffness tuning.

Area of Science:

• * Mechanical Engineering
• * Microsystems Engineering
• * Inertial Navigation Systems

Background:

• * Gyroscopes are crucial for precision rotation rate detection in navigation, guidance, and motion control.
• * Traditional Dynamically Tuned Gyroscopes (DTG) offer high precision but are often bulky and expensive.
• * Silicon micromachined technology presents opportunities for miniaturized and cost-effective sensor solutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• * To investigate a novel Hybrid Gyroscope (HG) combining DTG principles with silicon micromachined technology.
• * To develop and validate a new negative stiffness tuning mechanism for the HG.
• * To assess the impact of installation errors and demonstrate performance improvements.

Main Methods:

• * Theoretical derivation of the HG mechanism, including capacitance transducer and electrostatic torquer.
• * Investigation of installation errors from capacitance plates and disc rotor.
• * Proposal and experimental validation of a negative stiffness tuning mechanism.
• * Simulation and experimental achievement of rebalancing close-loop control.

Main Results:

• * A negative stiffness tuning mechanism was proven practicable, achieving a tuning voltage of 63 V.
• * Installation errors were significantly reduced, leading to a substantial decrease in scale factor non-linearity (11.78% to 0.64%).
• * Asymmetry was dramatically reduced from 93.3% to 1.56% under open-loop conditions.
• * Rebalancing close-loop control was successfully simulated and experimentally achieved.

Conclusions:

• * The Hybrid Gyroscope (HG) demonstrates the potential for high precision comparable to traditional DTGs.
• * The HG offers advantages of small size and low cost due to silicon micromachined technology.
• * The novel negative stiffness tuning mechanism is effective and practical.
• * The experimental results confirm the feasibility of the HG's fundamental principle for practical applications.