Gyroscope Sensor – Working & Its Applications

• A gyroscope sensor is an electronic device that is used for the reference of the direction of an object and it is also called an angular rate or angular velocity sensor. The function of this sensor is to provide stability while we are navigating on our device. The sensor is made of MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems) that are very small in size. It is an extremely advanced form of technology that has given rise to different components like accelerometers and gyroscope sensors. An accelerometer is a device that can be used to detect non-gravitational motion. A gyroscope sensor, on the other hand, can be used to detect gravitational motion. Thus, we can see that a gyroscope sensor and an accelerometer complement each other.

• A Gyroscope Sensor is an electronic device that takes the help of the earth’s gravity in determining the orientation. It is a type of sensor which we find inside IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit). A gyroscope can be used to measure the rotation on a particular axis. The device consists of a rotor which is nothing but a freely rotating disc. The rotor is mounted on a spinning axis which is present in the center of another larger wheel.

Working Principle of Gyroscope Sensor

• A gyroscope sensor can measure the angular velocity as well as the motion of the object. To improve the efficiency of motion sensing in consumer electronics Accelerometer sensor is combined with a Gyroscope sensor.
• The Coriolis force or the Coriolis effect is used in the measurement of angular momentum.
  A gyroscope sensor works based on angular velocity and momentum. It detects momentum. There is a rotor in the sensor that is mounted at a turn that allows the rotor to rotate on the given axis. This particular axis is called the gimbal.

• In the gyroscope sensors, there are two gimbals; one gimbal is stacked on the other one. Through this, the rotor has the freedom of three degrees. The gyroscope sensor points in the same direction if it is spanned.

Types of Gyroscope Sensor

Ring laser Gyroscope

• A ring laser gyroscope has a ring laser. The ring laser two has two counter-propagating resonant modes on the same path which are independent of one another Differences in the frequencies of the two resonant modes can be used to detect the rotation of bodies.

Fiber-optic Gyroscope

• A fiber-optic gyroscope follows the Sagnac effect. It works on the principle of interference of light which passes through the coils of the optic fiber. We inject two beams of light into the optic fiber from two opposite directions, and the phase shift can be measured through interferometry.

Fluid Gyroscope

• The liquid rate gyroscope primarily consists of a jet generator (an electrode pair), channel separation walls, and hotwires. The gyroscope is filled with electro-conjugate fluid. The jet generator is the needle-plate electrode pair.

Vibration Gyroscope

• A vibration gyroscope is the most commonly used gyroscope sensor. It is also an effortless device that is quite easy to use. In this type of gyroscope, a vibrating structure can be used to detect the rate of rotation in moving bodies. A vibration gyroscope has various important characteristics like temperature-frequency coefficient, scale factor, and many more.

Applications of Gyroscope Sensor

• The main application of gyro is to measure the orientation of bodies. There are limitless uses of gyroscope sensors, ranging from aircraft to simple mobile phones. These are also used in rescuing cars and motorboats. It can also generate power and can measure the rate of change in the vibration and angular velocity. The vibration is used in the navigation systems for cars and boats. These are very common in mobile phones for gaming and camera shake features in digital cameras.
• It is used in any application where angular velocity, angle sensing, and control mechanisms are needed to be measured.
• Sensing Angular Velocity It can be used to sense the rate of change of angular motion in moving bodies. This can be used for detecting athletic movement.
• Sensing Angles The angles can also be detected using the gyroscope sensor. This application is used in car navigation and game controllers.
• Sensing Control Mechanism We can also use a gyroscopic sensor to detect vibration due to various external factors. We can use this application for camera-shake control and vehicle control.