Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
7
th
International ESA Conference on Guidance, Navigation & Control Systems
2-5 June 2008, Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland
REGYS 20: A promising HRG-based IMU for space application
L.Rosellini, JM Caron
SAGEM Defense and Security, Paris, France
lionel.rosellini@sagem.com
INTRODUCTION
SAGEM DS is Europes leading manufacturer of inertial navigation and provider of space solutions for 30 years. In
2005 at GNC meeting, SAGEM DS announced the release of a new IMU for space application: REGYS 20, which is
based on Hemispherical Resonator Gyro (HRG) technology.
HRG (Fig. 1) is a vibrating mechanical gyro that has a very high Q factor (> 10 000 000) compared with other classical
vibrating gyro (~15 000). As a consequence, the forces necessary to sustain the amplitude of vibration are very low and
the generated drift is then low.
Fig. 1 Hemispherical-Resonator Gyro (HRG)
The philosophy of REGYS 20 development is to provide a medium performance class IMU using a reliable sensor
currently mass produced by SAGEM DS for military systems. A specific hardened electronics is developed by
SYDERAL, a Switzerland company. Electronics has to be as cheap as possible, matching with the required
performances, in order to be able to provide a competitive IMU system. A specific ASIC is currently developed by
ATMEL.
In this paper, main principles of HRG technology are recalled along with some analysis of the main performance drivers
such as phase shifts and gain errors.
The development of REGYS 20 in the frame of Alphabus program is updated.
Finally, we present the performance measurement obtained during integration phase with engineering models,
particularly bias stability, scale factor stability, angular noise and angular random walk.
Fig. 2 Analog processing function board (Engineering Model)
GNC 2008
7
th
International ESA Conference on Guidance, Navigation & Control Systems
2-5 June 2008, Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland
SAGEM DS AND SPACE RATE GYROS
Member of SAFRAN Group, SAGEM Defense & Security activities are centered on three main fields: Optronics
System & Optics, Security Systems & Multibiometrics and Avionics Systems & Navigation. SAGEM DS develops and
manufactures gyroscopes and accelerometers, covering a comprehensive performance range. European n1 and n3
worldwide in inertial and navigation systems, SAGEM DS is provider of space solutions for 30 years such as REGYS
3S (ODIN,STENTOR,XMM, INTEGRAL, PROTEUS ) and REGYS 10 (SPOT 4/5, HELIOS 1A/1B/2B, ENVISAT,
METOP 1/2/3 ).
The development of REGYS20, a new space rate gyro based on the HRG technology, is ongoing. For this development,
SAGEM DS benefits from the expertise of SAGEM VLN (formerly Alcatel Space Electronics) and SYDERAL in space
processing electronics and from ATMEL in ASIC development.
HRG: THE BEST SUITED TECHNOLOGY FOR SPACE
For space gyros, three main specific concerns have to be taken into account :
Radiation hardening,
Low noise
Reliability
The two first ones leads to choose mechanical gyros, such as floated gyro or dry tuned gyros (REGYS 3S or REGYS
10), which are both currently in many equipments in space. Nowadays, REGYS 20 can succeed relatively to these three
criteria at affordable price.
Indeed, HRG technology is based on a mechanical gyro that is naturally hardened mainly because its composed of
fused silica which is an amorphous material.
Moreover, HRG is a solid state gyro composed with a low number of parts (less than 5) whereas laser & fiber optics
gyro are composed of more than 30 parts. Fig. 3 shows the number of parts per axis as a function of gyro technology.
The number of parts of a gyro has been a key parameter in gyro history all over the last century. As it decreased,
reliability and production cost have continuously been improved with each new technology. From the floated gyro in
the 1940s to the vibrating gyro, the number of parts per axis decreased as reliability has increased. For example,
resonator MTBF is higher than 10
6
hours. For space application, this figure become even twice because the leakage,
which is the main mode of failure, disappears.
Moreover, a really high Q factor (more than 10
7
) provides to HRG its low random walk (less than 5.10
-3
/h have been
measured on Engineering models).
Floated Gyro
Tuned Gyro
Gyro Family
0
50
100
150
200
Floated
Gyro
Tuned
Gyro
Laser
Gyro
F.O.
Gyro.
Vibrating
Gyro
T
o
t
a
l
p
a
r
t
s
p
e
r
a
x
i
s
Gyro Family
0
50
100
150
200
Floated
Gyro
Tuned
Gyro
Laser
Gyro
F.O.
Gyro.
Vibrating
Gyro
T
o
t
a
l
p
a
r
t
s
p
e
r
a
x
i
s
Vibrating gyro
Laser Gyro
Fiber Optic
Gyro
Fig. 3 Evolution of gyro technology
GNC 2008
7
th
International ESA Conference on Guidance, Navigation & Control Systems
2-5 June 2008, Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland
Another impact of Q factor is the fact that for a given inertial performance, the required performance of analogous
electronics is reduced. With 10
7
Q factor, only a medium class performance analogous electronics (10
-3
) is necessary to
reach 5.10
-3
/h ARW performance. This is particularly interesting for space application because the cost of analogous
electronics is a major part of the cost of the equipment.
As a consequence, HRG technology is then the best suited technology for space application and it is interesting to
notice that the US reference for space gyro (Northrop SIRU) uses HRG gyroscopes
HRG PRINCIPLES
In 1851, Lon FOUCAULT measure earths rotation with his pendulum experiment in Panthon (Paris). He measured
11 /h which is already a quite precise measurement (1/h class performance). In 1852, on the basis of this experiment,
he invented the first spinning gyroscope in which the inertia of the rotors axis of rotation is substituted for that of the
plane of vibration.
A century later, industry had acquired a wealth of experience with spinning gyroscopes but was looking for simpler
solutions. Eventually, it created Hemispherical Resonant Gyroscope. The first HRG was developed in the United States
(work started at the end of the 60s first patented in 1979) by David Lynch from the Delco company, which
demonstrated the high performance potential of the technology, then starting in the 80s, by several bodies in the
military-industrial complex of the ex-USSR.
HRG technology is based on a hemispherical resonator that is low damped. It has two orthogonal modes of vibration
that are coupled by Coriolis forces. The basic equation of the system is the following:
+ = + +
+ = + +
m
f
x y y y
m
f
y x x x
y
y y y
x
x x x
& & & &
& & & &
2 2
2 2
2
2
(1)
In this equation, x and y stands for the position of the vibration in each of the two modal direction,
x
and
y
are the
pulsation of each mode,
x
and
y
, phase
and quadrature b.
b
x
y
a
Fig. 4 Solution of Equation 1(HRG)
In Equation (1), we can see that coriolis forces are homogeneous to a damping force making the angle of the vibration
to rotate. This is the physical phenomenon that allow to measure rotational rates.
GNC 2008
7
th
International ESA Conference on Guidance, Navigation & Control Systems
2-5 June 2008, Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland
REGYS 20 CHALLENGE
In order to reach high performance with HRG vibrating gyro, the main challenge is to sustain the amplitude and nullify
the quadrature of vibration without creating drift.
The undesirable generated drift depends on two characteristics:
The modulus of the forces needed to maintain the vibration and nullify the quadrature which are defined by the
physical characteristics of the resonator (damping and anisofrequency) and directly linked with the precision of
manufacturing process.
The errors generated by electronics used to estimate the position of vibration and to apply the forces to the
resonator (mainly gain and phase shifts).
As a consequence, a key parameter to minimize the forces that are applied to the gyro is the Q factor.The performance
of the gyro is then determined by the ratio Q/electronics stability: the higher the ratio, the better the gyro
The Q factor of all vibrating gyros, except HRG, is between 10 000 and 50 000, mainly 15 000. The Q factor of HRG is
greater than 10 000 000 !
Another key parameter is analogous electronics stability. For non hardened applications, 10
-3
class is usual, 10
-4
class is
good performance and 10
-5
is high performance. Using high performance electronics, the potential of HRG performance
is then 0,01/h class while other vibrating gyros using usual to good electronics will have a potential of 30 500 /h
class.
For space application, the main cost of equipment is generally linked with hardened electronics and of course, the more
sophisticated the electronics, the higher the cost.
As performance of the gyro is determined by the product: mechanical performance x electronics performance, it
becomes obvious that the best solution to reduce the price of a space gyro is to use a very high Q factor resonator in
order to minimize the required electronics performance: The best gyro for space application would be a high Q factor
HRG. Another advantage is that high Q factor gives to HRG its low random walk which allows reaching very easily the
required noise performance.
Moreover, because of the low number of parts, the naturally very high reliability of HRG technology (resonator MTBF
> 10
6
hours) is another non negligible advantage of HRG technology for space application.
RATE MODE OR WHOLE ANGLE MODE?
Electrostatic detection and motorization allow the system to get an estimate of the parameters of the ellipse (Fig 4) and
send forces that can influence every of those parameters.
Three controls are available to control the ellipse:
The amplitude control (Ca) that fight against damping to maintain the amplitude
The quadrature control (Cq) that fight against anisofrequency
The precession control (Cp) that allows to change the position of the vibration
Two modes of control can be chosen for controlled loop system, which are presented in Fig 5: rate mode or whole angle
mode.
R
A
T
E
M
O
D
E
W
H
O
L
E
A
N
G
L
E
M
O
D
E
X
Resonator
Vibration
.
Y
Position controled vibration
X
X
Resonator
Vibration
.
Y
Position controled vibration
X
Resonator
Dtection
& vibration
control
Y
X
V
ib
r
a
tio
n
Y
X
V
ib
r
a
tio
n
=
+
=
1
1
2
1
1
1
) (
n
i
i i
y y
n
where y
i
is the mean of the signal over time .
GNC 2008
7
th
International ESA Conference on Guidance, Navigation & Control Systems
2-5 June 2008, Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland
Basically, Allan variance measures the behaviour of the mean of the signal when increasing the integration time.
Applied to inertial sensors, this measurement make possible to estimate the noise performance separating short term and
long term noise.
For short term noises, white noise in angle is a -1 slope, angular random walk is a -0.5 slope and bias stability is an
horizontal line
HRG technology is well known for its low noise. Table 1 and Fig 12 show that, compared with a classic need in ADCS
application REGYS 20 is very promising concerning noise performance. This measurement has been done at 25C
during 2 hours with a signal sampling frequency of 2.4 kHz. This measurement time is not enough to measure long term
noise such as acceleration white noise and so on.
The specification is the following:
REGYS 20 datasheet Measurement
Rate Readout noise 0.0014 3.2.10
-6
Angular random walk 26.10
-3
/ h 3.10
-3
/ h
Bias instability 3.10
-2
/h
Table 1 : Noise characterization
-1
/h
1
0,1
Time (s)
0,01 0,1 1 10 100
Specification
-1
/h
1
0,1
Time (s)
0,01 0,1 1 10 100
-1
/h
1
0,1
Time (s)
0,01 0,1 1 10 100
Specification
Fig 12. Noise measurement at stabilized temperature (Allan variance)
CONCLUSION
REGYS 20 is an ITAR free HRG IMU for space application, using a mass produced already used for military
application. HRG is the best suited technology for space thanks to its natural hardening, high reliability and low random
walk. Moreover, it enables to minimize the required performance of analogous electronics and then reducing its cost.
Protoflight models are expected for delivery in 2009.