Vibrating gyroscopes

Although the design of a vibratory gyroscope can take many different physical forms, some arrangements being better than others, they all can be modelled by the simple mass spring system. In the design of a practical vibrating gyroscope the drive and detection functions are usually achieved either piezoelectrically or capacitively: cylinder gyros-piezoelectric drive and detection; tuning fork and beam gyros-piezoelectric drive and detection; and vibrating gimbal-capacitive drive and detection. It is important to take great care in the design of the mechanical connection to ground. A poor support design can create unwanted coupling between the drive and detection modes of vibration (thereby introducing bias) and can provide a path for energy leakage, which reduces the Q of the resonant vibration. For this reason designs such as the cylinder gyro have a better form design than the tuning fork gyro and the vibrating gimbal device produced at the Charles Draper Labs