Honeywell G.m.b.h.

Other

Wesley C Sewell

Stephen P Callaghan

Joseph E Killpatrick

Lloyd W Priddy

Merle E Lundeen

Windsor B Nealy

A digital to synchro converter converts digital values to an analog synchro signal. The values are mapped in a memory and sent to a digital to analog converter converting the digital values to analog values. Sample and hold circuitry is then used to create the analog synchro signal.

Dynamic digital to synchro converter

To reduce the accumulative lock-in effects of the ring laser gyroscope, the dither circuitry is provided with low frequency dither amplitude modulation. Such modulation is achieved by first developing a pair of complementary low frequency dither noise signals. These low frequency dither noise signals are then utilized by a modulator to modulate the dither drive signal in conjunction with the low frequency dither noise signals. This results in a system which allows much more dither amplitude modulation with much less output from the drive amplifiers. Because of the ability to increase amplitude modulation, gyro performance is greatly improved.

RLG dither noise injection by means of reference modulation

A high resolution ring laser gyro readout is accomplished by attaching the readout detectors signals to appropriate circuitry that allows a digital signal processor to sample the signals coming out of the readout sensor. The digital signal processor can then provide sufficient processing to determine the phase and frequency characteristics of these output signals which are indicative of the rate of rotation and the direction of rotation of the laser block 10. By sampling at a rate that greatly exceeds the maximum anticipated readout frequency, the resolution of the present invention is greatly enhanced. Furthermore, the readout system of the present invention is capable of handling certain irregularities in the gyro's output.

High resolution ring laser gyroscope readout

A data signal processer processes a pair of phase quadrature signals responsive to an interference pattern indicative of the phase change between counter-propagating laser beams in a rotation sensor. The data signal processer provides an output pulse for each .pi./2 phase change between the counter-propagating laser beams of the sensor.

Readout for a ring laser angular rate sensor

A digital rebalance system for an inertial reference sensor. The rebalance system associates the error signal output with a sample value of a stored error signal and generates a rebalancing torquing pattern waveform in response to the error signal. The system includes waveform generation and error signal processing devices, precision timing devices, passive compensation circuitry and a precision switching circuit.

Digital rebalance loop

Readout signals of a dithered ring laser angular sensor are processed by a signal combining circuit which forms part of a closed-loop dither signal remover scheme. The output of the signal combining circuit is demodulated as a function of the dither applied to the ring laser sensor and subsequently utilized to control a correction signal. The signal combining circuit combines the readout signal and the correction signal to yield an output signal stripped of substantially any dither signal components.

Dither signal remover for a dithered ring laser angular rate sensor

In the present invention, the output signal of a dithered ring laser angular rate sensor and a signal representative of the resultant dithering of the sensor, are each independently signal analyzed to obtain the frequency components contained in such signals. Data pairs of frequency components of the same frequency are signal processed in a manner to derive a compensation or correction signal representative of the dither frequency component in the readout. In turn, the correction signal is subtracted from the readout signal to provide a corrected readout signal substantially devoid of any dither signal component.

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Dunedin, FL, United States of America

Wesley C Sewell