Design of an all-attitude north-finder

A kind of All-attitude north-finder using two-position measurement method is introduced in this paper. In such a system, one Dynamic Tuned Gyro (DTG) and two accelerometers are used to sense earth rotating rate and the gravitational acceleration respectively. This system can work out azimuth precisely within three minutes. In the paper, following a theoretical analysis of error factors effecting north finding accuracy, an experiment to simulate north-finder work is done. Based on the error analysis and experiment, the hardware and software which implement the control of turning electromotor, power control of re-balancing circuit, the data acquisition of DTG and accelerometer´s outputs, calculation of azimuth and long distance communication are designed. According to the final test; it is proved that the system has good repetition and high accuracy.