HIGH RATE ROTATION SENSING

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an inertial measurement unit (IMU) configured to use a plurality of gyroscopes in a manner that enables the IMU to determine a rotation rate higher than the maximum rated rotation rate of the gyroscopes.SOLUTION: An inertial measurement unit (IMU) 100 for measuring a rate of rotation about an input axis 112 includes a first three-dimensional gyroscope 104 in which a first axis 118 from among three axes is arranged so as to be skewed from a reference plane 124 normal to the input axis 112. The IMU 100 also includes one or more processing devices coupled to the first gyroscope 104 and one or more data storage devices coupled to the processing devices. The data storage devices include instructions, which cause the one or more processing devices to calculate an input rate of rotation based on dividing a sensed rate of rotation about the first axis 118 by the sine of a skew angle.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1