Braking and cornering studies on an air cushion landing system

An experimental investigation was conducted to evaluate several concepts for braking and steering a vehicle equipped with an air cushion landing system (ACLS). The investigation made use of a modified airboat equipped with an ACLS. Braking concepts were characterized by the average deceleration of the vehicle. Reduced lobe flow and cavity venting braking concepts were evaluated in this program. The cavity venting braking concept demonstrated the best performance, producing decelerations on the test vehicle on the same order as moderate braking with conventional wheel brakes. Steering concepts were evaluated by recording the path taken while attempting to follow a prescribed maneuver. The steering concepts evaluated included using rudders only, using differential lobe flow, and using rudders combined with a lightly loaded, nonsteering center wheel. The latter concept proved to be the most accurate means of steering the vehicle on the ACLS, producing translational deviations two to three times higher than those from conventional nose-gear steering. However, this concept was still felt to provide reasonably precise steering control for the ACLS-equipped vehicle

Dual-Mass MEMS Gyroscope Structure, Design, and Electrostatic Compensation

Dual-mass MEMS gyroscope is one of the most popular inertial sensors. In this chapter, the structure design and electrostatic compensation technology for dual-mass MEMS gyroscope is introduced. Firstly, a classical dual-mass MEMS gyroscope structure is proposed, how it works as a tuning fork (drive anti-phase mode), and the structure dynamical model together with the monitoring system are presented. Secondly, the imperfect elements during the structure manufacture process are analyzed, and the quadrature error coupling stiffness model for dual-mass structure is proposed. After that, the quadrature error correction system based on coupling stiffness electrostatic compensation method is designed and evaluated. Thirdly, the dual-mass structure sensing mode modal is proposed, and the force rebalancing combs stimulation method is utilized to achieve sensing mode transform function precisely. The bandwidth of sensing open loop is calculated and experimentally proved as 0.54 times with the resonant frequency difference between sensing and drive modes. Then, proportional-integral-phase-leading controller is presented in sensing close loop to expand the bandwidth, and the experiment shows that the bandwidth is improved from 13 to 104 Hz. Finally, the results are concluded and summarized

Developing highly symmetric Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based butterfly gyroscopes

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) is the technology combining electrical components with mechanical systems at a micro scale. The combination of these two technologies allowed devices to interact with each other and build complex structures. System on the chips are built with components such as masses, electrodes, anchors, actuators and detectors. Reducing the size, weight, energy usage and cost is key while maintaining the sensors integrity. Sensitivity is an important factor when evaluating a gyroscope’s performance. This research presents beam modeling techniques for maximizing mechanical sensitivity of the butterfly resonator for gyroscopic applications. It investigates the geometric aspects of synchronizing beam that connects the wings of a butterfly resonator. The results show that geometric variation in the synchronizing beam can have a large effect on the frequency split and sensitivity of the device. The model simulation demonstrates a sensitivity of 10e-12 (m/°/sec) for a frequency split of 10 Hz, resulting from the optimized synchronous beam. Out of plane actuation was developed to drive and sense the resonators displacement. A butterfly sensor chip was fabricated to capture the dynamic responses of the resonator and to observe the theoretical and experimental results. Two butterfly resonators were tested, and the experimental results show a frequency split of 305 Hz and 400 Hz, while the model illustrated a split of 195 Hz and 220 Hz, respectively. The design and analysis presented in this thesis can further aid the development of MEMS butterfly resonators for inertial sensing applications