Vibrating-mass gyroscope system

A method for measuring rotation about each of three orthogonal axes via a gyroscope system, the method comprising:

• providing a drive signal to a first electrode to provide a driving force to a vibrating-mass along a first axis of the three orthogonal axes during a first time period;
• providing a first force-rebalance signal to a second electrode to provide a first force-rebalance to the vibrating-mass in a second axis of the three orthogonal axes during the first time period to calculate a rotation of the gyroscope system about the second axis based on the first force-rebalance signal;
• providing a second force-rebalance signal to a third electrode to provide a second force-rebalance to the vibrating-mass in a third axis of the three orthogonal axes during the first time period to calculate a rotation of the gyroscope system about the third axis based on the second force-rebalance signal;
• providing the drive signal to the second electrode to provide the driving force to the vibrating-mass along the second axis during a second time period;
• and
• providing the first force-rebalance signal to the first electrode to provide the first force-rebalance to the vibrating-mass in the first axis during the second time period to calculate a rotation of the gyroscope system about the first axis based on the first force-rebalance signal.

A gyroscope system comprising:

• a first sensor system comprising a first vibrating-mass and a first set of electrodes arranged to provide a first driving force in a first axis of three orthogonal axes, a first force-rebalance in a second axis of the three orthogonal axes, and a second force-rebalance in a third axis of the three orthogonal axes to the first vibrating-mass;
• a second sensor system comprising a second vibrating-mass and a second set of electrodes arranged to provide a second driving force in the second axis, a third force-rebalance in the first axis, and a fourth force-rebalance in the third axis to the second vibrating-mass;
• and
• a gyroscope controller configured to generate a first drive signal and a second drive signal that are provided to the first and second sets of electrodes, respectively, to provide respective first and second driving forces to facilitate in-plane periodic oscillatory motion of the first and second vibrating-masses along the respective first and second axes, to generate first force-rebalance signals that are alternately provided to each of the electrodes of the first set of electrodes associated with the second and third axes to alternately calculate a rotation of the gyroscope system about the respective second and third axes, and to generate second force-rebalance signals that are alternately provided to each of the second set of electrodes associated with the first and third axes to alternately calculate the rotation of the gyroscope system about the respective first and third axes.