Miniature low-cost IMUs provide multi-application commonality

Abstract

Summary form only given, as follows. Recent inertial measurement unit (IMU) development experience has shown that common components and design philosophies can meet the requirements of diverse missions. IMUs and attitude reference units (ARUs) built for hypervelocity projectiles, tactical missiles, precision munitions, and space interceptors have used these common approaches successfully. Each mission has major unique driving requirements: hypervelocity vehicles demand small diameters and have very tight form factor requirements, tactical missiles demand low cost, precision munitions require g-hardness for gun launches, and space interceptors demand low weight. A ring-laser-gyroscope-based cluster dither system approach, appropriately tailored to each application, provides integrated, self-contained, and testable IMUs and ARUs which meet the requirements for all these missions. The authors have examined the system architecture for building IMUs for each of these applications while stressing the common features which achieve the critical needs of each mission.<>