The features of the Quapason (SAGEM's metallic vibrating rate gyro) present great advantages for a new type of application: lntegrated Standby Instruments (ISI) used in military and commercial aircrafts. This paper deals with the specific requirements of these instruments and demonstrates the suitability of the Quapason for these applications where cheap sensors with good performance are essential. Today SAGEM offers a range of lnertial Measurement Units (IMU) which use the Quapason for the ISI market, also as Hemispherical Resonating Gyroscope (HRG). ISI are airborne instruments which provide the pilot with essential flight information, including the attitude of the carrier (roll and pitch angles), the heading (yaw angle) as well as the height and the speed of the carrier. These systems employ their own sensors, (a baro-altimeter, a magnetic compass and an IMU) and they display the relevant data on a LCD screen which includes the artificial horizon. A low cost is one of the main requirement for ISI systems, and therefore vibrating gyroscopes are particularly well suited to this application provided required performances are obtained. The physical laws and principles behind vibrating gyroscopes have been explained in a number of papers. The Quapason resonator consists of four metallic beams that form a double tuning fork structure. The four beams are ideally parallel, identical and are fixed to a common bare element. This structure has two pure flexion resonant modes, geometrically orthogonal and with identical frequencies. One of these modes is known as the principle mode (maintained in vibration), the other, secondary mode, is sensitive to the rotation of the resonator. Piezoelectric elements are fixed to the beams to allow the vibration to excited. The Quapason represents an excellent gyroscopic inertial sensor, perfectly suited to applications where robustness, reliability, low-cost and high short term stability are required. Among the current applications, standby instruments have particularly high performance requirements and the Quapason easily fulfils these. The associated manufacturing technology is simple and uses conventional means, insuring high production capacity, excellent yield and low-cost. The applications that will be addressed by the Quapason in the coming years will continue to grow, particularly in the field of commercial and military avionics.
New generation of clusters for standby instruments based on vibrating sensors
Eine neue Generation von Gruppen von Standby (Fluglageanzeige-) Instrumenten basierend auf Schwingungssensoren
2005
12 Seiten, 8 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 5 Quellen
Conference paper
English
New Generation of Inertial Clusters for Standby Instruments
Online Contents | 2006
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