ESG Reflected impedance pickoff
AssigneeThe Singer Company
InventorLincoln Stark Ferriss
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electrostatic pickoff well suited for use in a two-axis electrostatically-captured rotor rate gyroscope is shown. Displacement currents, which flow between stator electrodes and the V-shaped annular electrically conductive rotor capturing the rotor, are processed so as to produce signals related to rotor position but independent of capture currents. When closed through a 5 degree-of-freedom positional servomechanism, rotor position signals are effective in producing rotor capture with net zero rotor current without producing rotor distorting forces.
Claims14
An electrostatic gyroscope having two input axes and a spin axis comprising:
- an electrode structure,
- a rotor disposed about said electrode structure,
- means for capturing said rotor along three orthogonal axes in displacement and about said two input axes of said orthogonal axes in rotation,
- means to impart a rotation to said rotor and to sustain said rotation at a predetermined rate said rotation being about said spin axis of said orthogonal axes,
- mounting means on said electrode structure providing two degree-of-freedom rotational compliance about said two orthogonal axes about which said rotor is captured rotationally, and
- means responsive along said two orthogonal axes about which said rotor is captured rotationally coupled to said electrode structure constraining said electrode structure in place in the presence of gyroscopic reaction torques and providing output signals representative of input rate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.