Experimental Firing Fixture for Evaluation and Calibration of Angular Rate Sensors During Actual Gun Firings

摘要

Presently, there is a program to try to improve the accuracy of the 2.75-inch rocket by firing small side thrusters at the front of the rocket to make course corrections during flight. In order to know when to fire these side thrusters, it is necessary to continuously measure the angular velocity of the rocket in the yaw and the pitch directions with the use of angular rate sensors. Because of the small size and the low cost of the 2.75-inch rocket, the rate sensors currently used in other types of military rockets tend to be too large and much too costly. However, in the commercial field, small and inexpensive rate sensors have been developed by Tokin America Inc., Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd., and Analog Devices and are presently being used in camcorders and automotive applications. These commercial rate sensors have a range of at least 100 deg/sec and a bandwidth of at least 50 Hz. Since the anticipated motion of the rocket during launch is about 40 deg/sec at a frequency of about 18 Hz, the commercial rate sensors should be more than adequate to perform the required measurements, as long as they are not adversely affected by the 80-g acceleration of the rocket during launch.