Chaotic and steady state behaviour of a nonlinear controlled gyro subjected to harmonic disturbances

Chaotic and steady state motions of a nonlinear controlled gimbals suspension gyro used to stabilize an external body are studied in this paper. The equations of the gyro without nonlinear control are deduced from the Euler–Lagrange equations by using the nutation theory. The equations of the system show that a cyclic variable appears. Its elimination allows us to find an auxiliary nonlinear system from which it is possible to deduce a nonlinear control law in order to obtain a desired equilibrium point. From the analysis of the nonlinear control law it is possible to show that due to both harmonic disturbances in the platform of the gyro and in the body to stabilize, regular and chaotic motions can appear. The chaotic motion is researched by means of chaos maps, bifurcation diagrams, sensitivity to initial conditions, Lyapunov exponents and Fourier spectrum density. The transition from chaotic to steady state motion by eliminating the harmonic disturbances from the modification of the initial nonlinear control law is also researched. Next, the paper shows how to use the chaotic motion in order to obtain small input signals so that the desired equilibrium state of the gyro can be reached. The developed methodology and its compared performance are evaluated through analytical methods and numerical simulations.