Quote:
Originally Posted by gpetilli
I believe they are still essentially a spinning disk (abet very small). I would think the additional centrifugal forces on the disk would make it less accurate. Wont you get a "modulated" output from the gyro if it is off center of rotation and therefor having another circular path?
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Modern gyro's don't have a spinning disk in them.
If the gyro's reading depended only on angular rate, then no, you would not get a "modulated" output. Having "another circular path" will do nothing to the angular rate of the gyro. The angular rate of a rotating body is the same at every point.
The second circular path (not it spinning on it's own axis, but it rotating around the center of the robot) is really the thing just moving in x and y in a circle. Any acceleration that the gyro feels does mess it up, but only a little. Drift/temp variances are much worse. The gyro feels a centrifugal force as the robot spins because the speed in the x and speed in the y of the gyro change as the robot spins, and acceleration (and the forces that go with them) is just change in velocity. The acceleration of your robot stopping quickly is worse than the circular acceleration. If the robot is providing a force on the robot, either the centripetal force as the robot spins, or the contact force as the robot stops quickly, the gyro will feel the same effect.
If you don't believe me, look at a quadrotor. It doesn't always have the gyro in the center.