Gyrocompasses are principally navigation aids. Gyroscopes do not like to change course, so if they’re mounted into a system that allows them to maneuver freely (low friction gimbal). Then when the gadget is moved in different instructions the gyroscope will nonetheless level in the same course. This could then be measured and the outcomes could be used in related methods to a standard compass. However not like a standard magnetic compass isn’t magnetic environmental changes and readings are move accurate. Gyrocompasses are commonly used in ships and aircraft.

Primarily, it’s just a fancy method of useless reckoning, and like some other technique of lifeless reckoning, small errors build up over time such that the longer you depend on it, the farther off course you’re more likely to get. Submarines and spacecraft use fancy (and expensive) gyros full of lasers and stuff to minimize these errors and the resulting drift in positional accuracy, but for ground robots, drones, and (to a lesser extent) autonomous vehicles, measurement and mass and cost are significant elements. Whether or not it’s for a robotic making a map in a mine, or an autonomous automotive driving via a tunnel, you want a gyro that’s sensitive, accurate, reasonably priced, and small, all at the same time.

Wine-glass resonators also have a really high “Q factor,” which is a dimensionless measurement of the ratio difference between sensors and actuators the amount of power that’s stored in a resonator, and the way a lot power the resonator loses every time it oscillates. When you whack a wine glass, it vibrates, shifting and making noise. If it saved doing this without end, it would have infinite Q, however of course it’s giving up energy in all types of other ways (acoustic, thermal, mechanical), so eventually it’s going to stop vibrating. A high quality wine glass might have a Q of several thousand. A typical mobile phone gyro has a Q of a few hundred and vibrates for a lot lower than a second. The resonator that makes up the core of the PSI gyro has a Q of 5.1 million (!), meaning that when it’s packaged up in a vacuum it’ll vibrate for 300 seconds after being whacked one single time.