Trends in Inertial Sensors and Applications

Earl T. Benser
Aerospace Advanced Technology
Honeywell International
Plymouth, Minnesota
Abstract Inertial sensors have now become quite ubiquitous
as many devices and systems rely on them to serve a broad
variety of applications. Where inertial sensors were once
characterized as expensive precision instruments today lower
performance inertial sensors are manufactured by the billions of
units per year at a cost of a few cents per sensor while higher
performance gyros and accelerometers have achieved
unprecedented performance and reliability at much reduced
prices. This proliferation of inertial sensing has been driven by,
and has enabled, advances in sensor technology as well as an
interesting diversity of applications.
In this paper some observations of the historical trends in
inertial sensing and devices will be provided. The significant
applications that have stimulated and supported inertial sensor
development and manufacturing will also be presented.
Extrapolation of these trends into the future will be attempted as
a group of promising future inertial sensor technologies and
potentially new applications is discussed.
Keywordsinertial, sensors, systems, trends, history

I.

INTRODUCTION

Pick up a smart phone today and you are probably holding

a device that contains several inertial sensors (gyroscopes or
accelerometers) that cost just pennies. They support on-phone
applications that provide significant value to the owner. It was
not too long ago that these types of sensors were available only
to important applications that could support the high cost of
these precision instruments.
The history of inertial sensor development is the topic of
many previous papers [1, 2]. This paper examines the major
technical and application developments that have shaped the
current use of inertial sensing in a variety of applications.
II.

HISTORICAL TRENDS

A. Range of Performance Expectations

When we talk about inertial sensors and their application to
solve users problems, we must first recognize that the
performance space for these sensors spans many orders of
magnitude. Todays gyroscope bias stability performance can
range from many degrees per second to a handful of microdegrees per houra range of over ten orders of magnitude.
Accelerometer performance spans from greater than earths
gravitational acceleration (G) to a resolution of handfuls of

978-1-4799-5915-0/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

micro Gs, representing a range of over six orders of

magnitude.
The large range of performance expectations for
gyroscopes and accelerometers means that the devices that
meet these expectations emerge from a variety technology
platforms. Accordingly, no one gyroscope or accelerometer
technology platform today supports all applications.
B. Early Sensors and Applications
Early inertial sensor development by a series of
investigators led to Jean Bernard Lon Foucaults
groundbreaking demonstration of a method to measure earths
rotation using a pendulum. He is credited with first using the
term gyroscope in 1852. While today we often think of
inertial sensors serving navigation applications, the earliest
significant applications of gyroscopes addressed platform
stabilization needs.
Large gyroscopic devices were developed to provide
mechanical stabilization of ships. In 1911, Elmer Sperry, Sr.
and the Sperry Gyroscope Company started outfitting ships
with gyroscope-based stabilization systems intended to reduce
a ships roll motion due to wave action. Gyroscopes are still
used today for platform stabilization and angular momentum
control in both marine and space applications.
Lawrence Sperry, the son of Elmer Sperry, Sr., developed
the first autopilot systems for aircraft. In these systems,
gyroscopes were mechanically coupled to the aircrafts flight
control surfaces to provide heading maintenance and auto
leveling. These technologies were shown in 1914 at the
Concours de la Securit en Aroplane (Airplane Safety
Conference) competition in Paris where Sperry famously
demonstrated hands-off flying of a Curtiss C-2 aircraft via an
installed autopilot system.
Fig.1 shows a typical rate
gyroscope used in early aircraft applications.
Development preceding World War II saw the extension of
gyro-based systems for aircraft stabilization beyond the
autopilot function to integration with bomb sights for precision,
strategic bombing. Todays aircraft flight control and autopilot
systems similarly use onboard inertial sensors to provide
platform control and stabilization.
Early resistance strain gauge accelerometers, initially
developed in the 1920s, saw first widespread use in the mid
1930s [3]. Used to measure accelerations and vibrations in
various mechanical applications, these devices were large,

Fig. 2. The Honeywell QA-3000 Accelerometer

Fig. 1. The Honeywell JG7005 Rate Gyroscope

heavy, and expensive. Piezoelectric accelerometers were

widely developed in the 1940s and 1950s and offered higher
performance at a significantly reduced size and weight.
C. Transition to Inerital Navigation
The use of inertial sensors to provide navigation
information began with the development of gyrocompasses for
shipboard applications. The initial devices, developed between
1904 and 1915, were used to provide compass information on
board ships whose ferromagnetic structures created problems
for magnetic compasses. These gyrocompass systems were
large, fluid suspended, multi-gyroscope configurations that
required significant maintenance and support. Nonetheless,
they were widely adopted for military and commercial ship
applications.
Stellar or astronomical methods for position determination
were used for many generations but suffered from significant
limitations. In the 1940s and 1950s, a large effort was
expended to develop self-contained, full six -degrees of
freedom (6 DOF) inertial navigation systems, driven mainly by
military aircraft, submarine, and ballistic missile system
applications.
These systems allowed for long range
autonomous missions, including transcontinental flight and
submarine navigation across the North Pole. These systems
often placed their sensors onto a gimbaled platform to isolate
them from the dynamic motion of the platform. This
implementation led to significant mechanical complexity along
with the incumbent increase in size, weight, and cost.

resonator was rotated. This observation led to the development

of a sequence of resonator based gyroscopes in the early 1960s.
Initial work used microwave resonators with amplification
within the resonator (maser) but shifted to using a sequence of
optical resonators using the He-Ne laser lines at 3390nm,
2020nm, and 1150nm. Ultimately converging on the 633nm
He-Ne laser line, the RLG has now become the benchmark
gyroscope for inertial navigation. Over 2,000,000 RLG
devices in a variety of configurations, sizes, and performance
capabilities have been manufactured to date.
The two modes propagating within the RLG, one clockwise
(CW) and the other counterclockwise (CCW) are made to
interfere with each other such that the frequency difference due
to rotation and the Sagnac effect can be measured. Because it
is not subject to many of the error sources plaguing
conventional electronic measurements, frequency oras in this
casefrequency difference can be measured very precisely.
This precision gives the RLG great dynamic range and
stability. The Honeywell GG1320 navigation grade RLG is
show in Fig. 3.
E. Strapdown Inertial Navigation
With the precision of a high performance sensor like the
RLG and the availability of significant computational
processing power, it became possible to develop inertial
navigation systems that were mounted directly to the platform
(strapped down) rather than gimbaled. The major issue in this
development was accurate translation of the measurements
made by the sensors in the platform coordinate system to a
reference frame appropriate for the navigation application.
These transforms and associated strapdown corrections can be
complex, requiring significant processing power to provide

Longer range inertial navigation systems required improved

gyroscopes and accelerometers, including the Pendulous
Integrating Gyroscopic Accelerometer (PIGA). The PIGA is an
integrating accelerometer (measuring velocity) that was widely
used in missile guidance systems. Accelerometers based on
quartz pendulous flexures or resonant structures have also been
developed to meet inertial navigation needs. The Honeywell
QA-3000 is a navigation grade, quartz force rebalance
accelerometer and is shown in Fig. 2.
D. Performance Breakthrough: The Ring Laser Gyroscope
(RLG)
In 1959, C.V. Heer [4] observed that degenerate modes of a
resonator enclosing a fixed area were shifted when the

Fig. 3. The Honeywell GG1320 Ring Laser Gyroscope

navigation solutions that delivered measurements with

acceptable update rates and latency. It was not until the late
1970s that the combination of high-performance sensors and
sufficient computational power was achieved in hardware
consistent with real applications [5].
F. Cost Breakthrough: Micro Electromechanical Systems
(MEMS) Sensors
Techniques for the development and manufacture of
integrated circuits have been maturing for the last 50 years. In
the latter half of the 20th century, these tools and methods were
also used to develop small microscopic structures, machines,
and systemsMEMS devices. The earliest MEMS products,
originally released in the mid-1970s, were silicon-based flow
and pressure sensors that were relatively simple structures
etched into small substrates.
Even with these smaller
substrates, each silicon wafer could contain hundreds of
devices that were available at a significantly reduced cost.
MEMS accelerometers were developed in the 1980s
targeting the large production volumes required to meet
automotive needs for an airbag trigger. By the 1990s airbags
were becoming standard equipment on most cars and the
volumes of airbag accelerometers were in the millions of units
per year. This drove the cost down dramatically and today
airbag accelerometer devices cost a few dollars.
During the 1990s, MEMS gyroscopes were investigated in
a variety of laboratories. One of the most notable projects was
the development of a Coriolis vibratory gyroscope (CVG) at
Charles Stark Draper Laboratories.
The Draper CVG
technology was acquired by Honeywell in 1999 and led to the
development of a series of inertial measurement units (IMU)
for tactical applications. The MEMS CVG gyroscope and the
Honeywell HG1930 IMU are shown in Fig. 4
G. High Performance Breakthroughs: ESG, HRG, and FOG
In the 1950s, work on improved performance gyroscopes
included the development of the electrically suspended
gyroscope or ESG. In this gyroscope, a nearly spherical rotor
was electrostatically and dynamically suspended in a vacuum.
A series of electrodes within the spherical geometry spin the
rotor and provide readout.
Another approach to gyroscope improvement was initiated
in the 1960s with the development of the hemispherical
resonator gyro (HRG) [5]. In this gyro, an axisymmetric
resonator is driven into resonance, and the spatial position of
two nearly degenerate modes is tracked. As the gyroscope is
rotated, the vibratory modes precess about the axis of

Fig. 4. The Honeywell MEMS Gyroscope and HG1930 IMU

symmetry; this precession is used to measure rotation.

The fiber optic gyro (FOG) is similar to the RLG in that
counter-propagating optical signals experience phase shifts due
to the Sagnac effect.
The FOG does not use laser
amplification; rather, the optical signals circulate within either
an interferometer or a resonator. Measurement of the nonreciprocal phase shift provides information about rotation.
H. Low Cost Breakthroughs: Smart Phone and Tablet
Applications
With the introduction of the motion tracking game console
controller and the smart phone in the 2000s and the tablet
computer in 2010, the need for device attitude determination
led to a massive increase in the volume of small and
inexpensive inertial sensors being developed and sold. The
volume of inertial sensors being manufactured every year now
exceeds one billion over one-half billion smart phones and
tablets, each containing multiple inertial sensors, are sold every
year. Multisensor modules containing up to six inertial sensors
are now available for a cost of around one dollar.
Where inertial sensors started as precision instruments
available only for high-value applications, they are now nearly
a commodity and can be integrated almost anywhere.
III.

FUTURE TRENDS

The preceding discussion of the development and

application of inertial sensor technologies leads to speculation
about the future of inertial sensing technologies and
applications.
A. Next Generation Technologies
Significant work on improved inertial sensors is ongoing in
a variety of technology areas. Some efforts are extrapolations
of work already completed while others boldly explore novel
phenomena and methods to provide next generation sensors.
1) High Performance MEMS
Increasing the performance of MEMS devices is quite
attractive, since they can be manufactured at a significantly
lower cost. Current MEMS sensors level of performance
tends to limit them to consumer, automotive, and tactical grade
applications. A variety of MEMS devices (both accelerometers
and gyroscopes) that achieve near navigation grade
performance [7] are now being developed and demonstrated.
Systems with on-chip or macroscopic actuation to facilitate
sensor-level calibration have also been demonstrated. These
actuation-based calibration approaches could overcome some
of the MEMS sensor limitations to provide an overall
navigation-grade solution with significantly reduced cost, size,
and weight.
2) Resonant Structures
Continuing the work started by the development of the
HRG, several teams are developing gyroscopes based on a
variety of resonant structures. Development of next generation
HRG sensors is targeting navigation grade performance at
lower cost. Disk resonator gyroscopes made from silicon and
quartz are also being demonstrated. Novel microscale resonant
structures are being investigated as potential tactical-grade
sensors for highly dynamic applications.

3) Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)

Several teams in recent years have been developing
gyroscopes based on the measurement of nuclear magnetic
resonance (NMR) [8]. In these gyroscopes, the precession of
nuclear spins of several gaseous constituents are controlled and
monitored to measure rotation. Small-scale devices have been
demonstrated and navigation grade performance achieved.

automation devices, automobiles, and even individual light

bulbs are communicating and active. As we have seen in our
experience regarding smart phones and tablets, low-cost and
small-scale inertial sensors could enable heretofore unexpected
applications. Imagine shaking the toaster to eject the toast or
packages in transit actively complaining about mistreatment.
This could get really interesting.

4) Cold Atom Sensors and Bose-Einstein Condensates

The Sagnac effect applies not only to electromagnetic
waves but also to matter waves. Several groups have
demonstrated inertial sensors based on the use of cooled atoms
to implement gravimeters, accelerometers, and rotation rate
sensors [9, 10]. The extremely short wavelength of the matter
waves leads to a theoretical increase in the sensors scale factor
by many orders of magnitude. This work is being extended to
look for inertial sensor techniques at the extreme cold
temperatures of Bose-Einstein condensates.

4) Ubiquitous Sensors and Big Data

With the ever increasing deployment of inexpensive inertial
sensors the amount of data available to be analyzed becomes
staggering. Currently, billions of sensors are walking the
planeteach one capable of providing inertial data at least
several times a second. The number of sensors and the amount
of available data will increase dramatically in time, and the
analysis and use of this dataset will be the spawning ground for
new applications we cannot imagine today

5) Advanced Microsystems
Complex microsystems that contain multiple inertial
sensors are already being sold. These microsystems can
contain up to six inertial sensorsthree accelerometers and
three gyroscopes. More capable microsystems also integrate
three axis magnetometers for northfinding and a pressure
sensor for altimetry. Extending this method could include
adding imaging sensors for vision-aided navigation and other
applications.

Inertial sensor development has been proceeding for the

last 100 years and is now rapidly driving toward increased
performance and reduced size, weight, and cost. As these
sensors become more available, new and interesting
applications emerge. While todays applications are interesting,
the uses for these sensors we have not yet imagined are going
to be the most exciting.

B. Next Generation Applications and Issues

The development of a new generation of applications using
inertial sensors appears to be happening along both familiar
and innovative lines and will need to overcome novel problems
as it progresses.

I would like to acknowledge the support of David Arch,

Gordon Rouse, and Glen Sanders in the preparation of this
paper.

1) Personal Navigation
Smart phones today can track and communicate their
location. If you lose your phone, you can just tap an
application icon on another device to find it. This functionality
can be obviously extended to other objects/items using small
and inexpensive inertial sensors. These sensors will allow you
to track your children, pets, car keys, or any object into which
you integrate the sensors. In the near future, implantable
sensor packages for tracking and locating may be available.
2) GNSS and Inertial Navigation
The emergence of the Global Positioning System (GPS) in
the last few decades has been a perceived threat to the use of
inertial sensors for navigation applications. What appears to be
more likely is that GPS and its future form, the Global
Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), will continue to
complement inertial sensors in providing navigation solutions.
There will continue to be scenarios where even multiconstellation, multi-frequency GNSS will not have the
availability or reliability to support navigation users. In these
scenarios, inertial sensors will still be required.
3) The Internet of Things
More and more everyday devices are becoming
interconnected through the Internet.
Appliances, home

IV.

CONCLUSION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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