Inertial Reference Corrective Approaches to Complementary Antenna Pedestal Gyro Units

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project provides a feasibility study for achieving a new low size, weight and power (SWAP) gyroscope technology with <1 degree, 3 sigma, attitude accuracy over a 24 hour mission, over a -55 to 85 degree Celsius temperature range. This device is comprised of a resonant gyroscope technology housed in an environmental resistant package (ERP). The gyroscope alone meets all of the necessary technical specification for antenna pointing and navigation performance except for the bias drift stability which is strongly temperature dependent. The ERP technology allows for the temperature of this gyroscope to be held at a constant temperature by holding it on an isolation platform and housing them in a vacuum environment. During operation the gyroscope temperature will be held at 95 degrees Celsius using <50 mW oven control over a -55 to 85 degree outside temperature range. Holding the gyroscope to a temperature stability of 0.041 degrees Celsius to 3 sigma should enable the above mentioned application. The key technical challenge in this project will be to develop proportional integral derivative (PID) control algorithms and other techniques for achieving this high level of temperature stability across a wide temperature range. BENEFIT: The benefits/potential commercial applications of this project will be to bring a new low size, weight and power (SWAP) gyroscope technology to market for tactical and navigation grade applications. This device will be nearly 100 times smaller and lower power and will cost as much as 10 times less then conventional technologies such as hemispherical resonant gyroscopes (HRG). Its main application will be in closed loop antenna pointing applications for broadband battlefield communications and its extremely small size will allow for placement of the sensor at the phase center of these antennas enabling highly precise attitude accuracy. Its very low cost will enable the use of these antennas in a broader range of aircraft and ground vehicles. This gyroscope technology will also be applicable in existing and emerging markets including missile and satellite attitude control, attitude control of vehicles and hulls on tanks, Jeeps and Humvees, and miniaturized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Furthermore, the environmental resistant package (ERP), one of the enabling pieces of this technology, can be applied for temperature control and shock protection of other types of sensors including low power oven controlled oscillators for high precision clock references and highly shock resistant accelerometers and gyroscopes.