Pendulous velocity meter control synthesis

An acceleration sensing instrument is essential to an automatic inertial navigation system. A velocity meter (VM) is a singly-integrating, acceleration-sensing instrument which has become important in providing precise, continuous velocity information for navigation of a wide variety of vehicles, from submarines to ballistic missiles. The increased autonavigator accuracy achievements and objectives have placed greater emphasis on instrument and associated instrument electronics error sources and their design to minimize these errors. This paper is primarily concerned with error sources which are affected by the design of the VM servo control amplifier. The environmental conditions, the pendulous nature of the VM, and the accuracy specifications are analyzed to provide requirements for synthesis of a VM servo control amplifier to achieve the desired system operation.