The specification discloses an angular velocity sensor of the type wherein a flow of gas forced by a pump into a gas path in the sensor body through a nozzle hole and directed toward a pair of thermosensitive resistance elements provided in the gas path is deflected by the action of an angular velocity and the deflection of the gas flow is sensed by means of the thermosensitive resistance elements, and which is further provided with a thermostatically--controlled gas path with heating means for keeping the gas flow at a constant temperature with no affection of ambient temperature variations and also provided with a gas path for absorbing pulsations of the gas flow caused by pumping operations.

La présente invention concerne un procédé et un dispositif (16) pour minimiser dans un système de mesures inertielles à composants liés l'erreur due à un mouvement perturbant quelconque dans la restitution de la vitesse.

Selon l'invention, ledit dispositif (16) est relié à un ensemble d'accéléromètres et à un ensemble de gyromètres et il comporte :

• un premier calculateur périphérique (17) susceptible d'effectuer des multiplications vectorielles ;
• un second calculateur périphérique (18) susceptible d'effectuer des produits vectoriels ; et
• un calculateur central (19) relié auxdits premier et second calculateurs périphériques (17, 18) et coordonnant les différents calculs.

A semiconductor type gas rate sensor which is capable of accurately sensing with a sufficient sensitivity an angular velocity acting on its body made of semiconductor substrates having a nozzle port and a gas path etched therein with a pair of heat wires (heat-sensitive resistance elements) provided in the gas path, wherein an optimal flow of gas injected into the gas path through the nozzle port is ensured by designing the nozzle port of 300 to 1000 microns in width and of not less than 2 mm in length and providing the gas path at its inner most position with an outlet allowing the gas to straight flow out from the gas path therethrough.

A gas flow type angular velocity sensor which is capable of reliably sensing an angular velocity while accurately controlling the working gas flow with temperature compensation by using a pair of heat wires as a gas flow sensor without providing any additional gas flow sensor in the sensor body wherein a an angular velocity sensing bridge circuit is provided at its current supply source with a connected in series therewith temperature compensating circuit which is composed of a pair of series or parallel resistance elements: one is a thermosensitive resistance element disposed in a gas path and the other is a reference resistance element disposed outside the gas path.

A semiconductor gyro apparatus includes a current supply device (23) for supplying electrical current to a semiconductor device (20) consitituted by a solid-state device, and a voltage detection (26) connected to the semiconductor device (20). The coriolis force exerted on the flow of electrons within the semiconductor device when an angular velocity is imposed on the semiconductor device is detected by the voltage detection device (26) as an electrical voltage.

An angular rate sensor is provided having a specially shaped nozzle (28) which shapes the velocity profile of a gas stream passing through a nozzle so that a linear portion of the profile impinges upon the resistive elements (53,54) of the sensor even when large angular rates of turn in a plane of sensitivity are encountered. The nozzle (28) is generally rectangularly shaped having a pair of parallel sides arranged perpendicularly to the resistive elements (53,54) of the sensor and a pair of connecting sides.

A gas flow type angular velocity sensor comprising two semiconductor substrates with all components formed thereon by use of a semiconductor technology and an IC technology, which are coupled with each other to form therein a pair of heat wires, a gas path and a nozzle holes for injecting a gas flow toward the paired heat wires in the gas path. Two heat wires of the pair changes their resistance-temperature characteristics in accordance with a deflection of the gas flow due to the action of angular velocity and a difference between two changed values is picked up and amplified by a resistance bridge circuit and an amplifier circuit formed on the semiconductor substrates to produce an output signal proportional to the angular velocity to be measured. A miniature pump formed on semiconductor substrates and drivable by a piezoelectric element provides a stabilized gas flow in the sensor. Thus constructed sensor is compact, accurate and suitable for mass-production and free from disadvantages of conventional sensors.

An angular rate sensor is provided having a specially shaped nozzle (28) which shapes the velocity profile of a gas stream passing through a nozzle so that a linear portion of the profile impinges upon the resistive elements (53,54) of the sensor even when large angular rates of turn in a plane of sensitivity are encountered. The nozzle (28) is generally rectangularly shaped having a pair of parallel sides arranged perpendicularly to the resistive elements (53,54) of the sensor and a pair of connecting sides.

A method of manufacturing a fluidic angular rate sensor of the type that fine wires such as tungsten wires are tensely spread over the heads of two pairs of metal supports which are mounted on a ceramic disc having fluid passage apertures, includes the steps of: plating a gold on the wires and fixedly spreading the wires over the metal supports by means of thermocompression bonding or the like; and heating the wires in a predetermined atmo­sphere which allows the plated gold to be removed and the wires to be crystalized.

Gegenstand der Anmeldung ist ein Verfahren zur Messung von Drehgeschwindigkeiten um wenigstens zwei zueinander senkrecht stehende Aschen.

Hierzu wird z.B. ein Laserkreisel (1) mit der Drehgeschwindigkeit ω_o um eine Hilfsdrehachse (3) gedreht und bei Drehstellungen ω_o des Kreisels (1), bei denen eine der Komponenten des Ausgangssignals des Kreisels (1) 0 wird, der Ausgangswert des Kreiselsignals bestimmt. Aus einem sich dabei ergebenden Gleichungssystem lassen sich die Komponenten der gesuchten Drehung errechnen.

An angular rate sensor includes an improved impulse pump structure (70) for providing fluid under pressure to a nozzle (28) disposed at one end of a jet chamber (29) to form a constant flow fluid jet, the jet chamber (29) including a pair of temperature sensitive elements (53, 54) disposed at the other end in such a manner as to be differentially cooled by the fluid jet in dependence on the angular rotation of the sensor.