Feasibility of Development of a Quasi-Imperturbable Pendulum Vertical Sensor

Abstract

The authors consider feasibility of development of a quasi-imperturbable pendulum vertical sensor. The result is achieved due to compensation for the error caused by the acceleration of an object by means of the corrective actions on the pendulum formed by the signals of the inertial sensors. They also consider a possibility of reduction of the displacement of the pendulum from the vertical position under the influence of the horizontal acceleration of an object by formation of a reaction, which compensates for the inertial forces by the sensors of the same physical nature - an accelerometer and additional sources of information - rate gyro and additional feedback from the output signal. The article discusses versions of various combinations of the corrective devices, namely: 1) basic option - pendulum corrected by an accelerometer 2) basic option and additional feedback from the output signal 3) version of paragraph 2, with additional correction sensor - rate gyro. It was demonstrated that the basic option does not reduce the pendulum static displacement from the vertical, but significantly increases the time constant depending on the feedback factor, and significantly reduces the rate of the displacement increase from the vertical. It may be used in a number of technical applications. Version of paragraph 2 has the following features: in the presence of a horizontal acceleration and in the absence of the deviation angles of the housing of the pendulum it becomes quasi-imperturbable, and the steady-state value of the displacement angle in relative units at a single step unit of acceleration is defined as a_x(1 - d)/g, where d - feedback factor 0 < d £ 1, but, if the deviation angle of the housing of the pendulum is present, it becomes practically unworkable because the pendulum follows its housing. Therefore, there is a need to compensate for this effect using the information from the rate gyro. In this case the pendulum becomes quasi-imperturbable and any acceleration of an object will result in the steady-state value of displacement angle a_x(1 - d)/g. The carried out physical experiments of modeling and simulation confirm the findings and possibility of development of a number of technical applications on this basis.