What is a Gyro?
A Gyroscope is a device which enables us to measure or maintain an orientation in free space and rotor gyros specifically, operate on the principle of the conservation of angular momentum. The first gyros were built early in the 19th century as spinning spheres or disks (rotors), with designs incorporating one, two or three gimbals, providing the rotor spin axis with up to three degrees of freedom. These early systems were predominantly used within the academic community, to study gyroscopic effects as rotor speeds (angular momentum) could not be sustained for long periods, due to bearing friction effects. The development of the electric motor overcame this rotation decay problem and lead to the first designs of prototype gyrocompasses during the 1860’s.
As with most scientific and technology advances, continued development and refinement was propagated and accelerated to address military applications and by the early 1900’s gyros were being used in many attitude control, orientation and navigation applications. Rotor gyros are still by far the most common system used by the oil industry.
During the second half of the 20th century several additional technologies were developed and exploited providing gyroscopic capabilities. These included:
- Vibrating Gyros
- Hemispherical Resonator Gyros
- Quartz Rate Sensors
- MHD Sensor
- Fibre Optic Gyros
- Laser Gyros
- MEMS Gyros
The systems currently considered to have the most potential for the oil industry are the Laser and MEMS systems. Indeed, Inteq developed and successfully marketed and operated the highly accurate RIGS (Ring-Laser Inertial Gyro Surveyor) for many years servicing the North Sea. The current performance capability of the MEMS unit is still less than desired but is regarded as having potential for the future.
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