Description
Inertial navigation systems (INS) have been studied extensively to increase their performance and enhance robustness. One critical component of the INS is the gyroscope, which is used for detecting orientation. These gyroscopes are subject to material imperfections and manufacturing defects potentially reducing their ability to detect signals and reduce phase drift. One common type of vibratory gyroscope is manufactured based on MEMS (Micro-electromechanical Systems) technology, which yields small gyroscopes at lower costs. However, with low cost gyroscopes comes a quality trade-off, specifically for inertial guidance systems. For this reason, this work explores the idea of improving the performance of vibratory gyroscopes by combining the input-output response of an ensemble of gyroscopes coupled in a ring fashion. More specifically, bidirectional coupling in both axes is investigated. Numerical simulations and analytical work show that this coupling causes the sum of the response in the synchronized state to have a larger output than an individual gyroscope. This reduces the negative effects of phase drift and positively influences the sensitivity. Numerical and analytical bifurcation diagrams also reveal regions of synchronization for given coupling strength and input rotation parameters. To demonstrate robustness this work focuses on two types of noise, variation in mass and contamination of the target signal. When subjected to this noise, improvement in phase drift is seen when the coupled gyroscopes systems are numerically compared to uncoupled systems.
