Robustness Analysis of Accelerometry Using an Electrostatically Suspended Gyroscope

J. Alex Fax, Daniel A. Hill, and Richard M. Murray
1999 IEEE Conference on Controls Applications

The Electrostatically Suspended Gyroscope (ESG) is a two-axis inertial orientati on sensor manufactured by Boeing and currently in use on U.S. Navy submarines. The additi onal ability of the ESG to act as an accelerometer is well known, but extraction of precision acceleration measuremen ts from an ESG has not been achieved. The major obstacles to precision accelerometry are the nonlinear dynamics of the ESG rotor and param etric variation of the ESG electronics. In this paper, we derive a model for the ESG dynamics with an eye toward efficient representation of the uncertainties in the model. We represent the model uncert ainties and nonlinearities in a framework amenable to mu-analysis and analyze ESG accelerometer precision using $\mu$-analysis tools. Finally, we discuss the implementation of a digital ESG control architecture for use in ESG system identification and testing of suspension control and acce lerometer algorithms.

• Conference Paper: http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~murray/preprints/fhm99-cca.pdf
• Project(s): Template:HTDB funding::AFOSR