Experimental studies on dynamic response of piezoelectric based hemispherical resonator gyroscope

Purpose This work measures the performance characteristics of a hemispherical resonator gyroscope (HRG) and compares it with a numerical model. Design/methodology/approach This work we explore the optical and piezoelectric measurement methods to determine the resonant frequency of HRG. These experimental results are compared with their numerically obtained values. To explore the performance characteristics, the effect of varying actuation voltages on the sense mode displacement and the piezoelectric sensor output was studied in the absence of input angular rate. The structure was then subjected to range of angular rate signals, at a constant actuation voltage and the corresponding sensor response was analysed. Findings Experimental values of the resonant frequencies in drive and sense modes are found to be within 8% of the numerical results. The sensor output depicts a quadratic dependency on the applied angular rate, which is synchronous with the governing equations of the HRG. The experimental output is within 12% of that obtained numerically. The sensor is found to resolve upto 0.24 rad/s. Originality/value This work presents an in-house developed inexpensive measurement setup for static and dynamic characterization of mesoscale MEMS gyroscopes. The measurement setup can also be modified accordingly for measurement of other MEMS-based devices.