Page 148 - Concise Encyclopedia of Robotics

Gyroscope
The illustration shows the construction of a simple gyroscope.The disk,
made of massive material such as solid steel or tungsten, is mounted in a
gimbal, which is a set of bearings that allows the disk to turn up and down
or from side to side; conversely,the bearings allow the entire assembly (ex-
cept for the disk) to undergo pitch, roll, and yaw while the disk remains fixed
in its spatial orientation. The disk is usually driven by an electric motor.
A gyroscope can be employed to keep track of a robot’s direction of
travel, or bearing, in three-dimensional (3-D) space without reliance on
external objects, beacons, or force fields. Gyroscopes allow the accurate
operation of guidance systems for a limited time, because they tend to
change their orientation slowly over long periods. In addition, gyro-
scopes are susceptible to misalignment in the event of physical shock.
See also PITCH, ROLL, and YAW.

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