GYRO COMPASS

Phase II
 Scope from MMD Exam Perspective
• Understanding Free Gyroscope and its properties
– Gyroscopic inertia
– Gyroscopic Precession
• Making Gyro North Seeking
– Un-damped Gyro ; Top Heavy & Bottom Heavy Arrangement
– Damping of Gyro ; Damped in Tilt & Damped in Azimuth
• Errors associated with Gyro
– Settling error
– Steaming error
• Care and maintenance of Gyro
• Transmission of signal from Master Gyro to repeaters

Gyro Notes_Capt. Vijay Kumar

 Understanding Free Gyroscope and its properties
• A gyroscope consists of a mass in form of a rotor or
wheel, which is suspended in such a way that it is free to
spin about its axis(called spin axis) passing through its
centre of mass and perpendicular to the plane of rotor.
The arrangement is such that it has following 3 degrees
of freedom . Freedom
1. to spin about the spin axis - X
2. to tilt about the horizontal axis - Y
3. to turn about the vertical axis - Z
• Once the rotor has been imparted angular momentum,
its spin axis continue to point in a fixed direction towards
an imaginary star, namely Gyro Star
Gyro Notes_Capt. Vijay Kumar
 Understanding Free Gyroscope and its properties
This property of Gyro is termed as Rigidity in Space or Gyroscopic Inertia.
Thus anywhere on the earth, as the axis are pointing towards this
star, the axis will exhibit tilt (corresponding to the altitude of the
star) and drift (corresponding to azimuth of the star). The tilt and
drift of the axis is represented by
Tilt of the axis – The angle of elevation or depression of Spin Axis, above
or below the horizon; corresponding to the altitude of the gyro star
Drift of the axis - The eastward or westward movement of the Spin Axis
is called drift; corresponding to the azimuth of gyro star
Tilting – Rate of Change of tilt of the Spin Axis; it is expressed as
150 Cos latitude x Sin Azimuth per hour
Path traced by the North end of spin axis in North
Drifting – Rate of Change of azimuth of the Spin Axis; it is expressed as
Latitude, initially set pointing in eastward direction
150 Sin Latitude per hour

Gyro Notes_Capt. Vijay Kumar

 Gyroscopic Precession
When an external force (torque is applied) to the spin axis of
the gyroscope, the resulting motion of the spin axis is
termed as gyroscopic precession.
In case of spinning bodies (bodies with angular momentum),
the plane in which the torque is applied, the resulting
motion of the spin axis is in 900 to that plane in the
direction of motion; thus if a torque is applied in vertical
plane the spin axis will PRECESS in horizontal plane and
vice versa
The direction in which the spin axis will PRECESS depends on
the following factors:
– The direction of the spin of the wheel
– The point at which the force is applied to the spin axis &
– The direction in which the force is applied
Gyro Notes_Capt. Vijay Kumar
 Making A North Seeking Gyro
• As explained the free gyro at any point on the earth has tilt and drift corresponding to the altitude &
azimuth of the Gyro star and the same can be calculated.
• Also taking into account the properties exhibited by the Gyro of rigidity in space and precession, a free
gyroscope is hardly of any use in finding direction
• The desired proposition is to have an arrangement so that the tilt and drift of a free gyro can be
compensated by applying equal and opposite force
• The same is achieved by making either a Top Heavy or Bottom heavy gyro, using an assembly of mercury
pots, whereby the movement of liquid will make the axis precess in equal and opposite direction of tilt and
drift.
• In fact drift is more important to be controlled rather than tilt so that it can be used for finding direction
finding
• The free gyroscope is thus converted to a Gravity Controlled Gyro through above arrangements. The gyro
with above such arrangements is knownGyro
as an UNDAMPED GYRO
Notes_Capt. Vijay Kumar
 Undamped Gravity Controlled Gyro – Bottom Heavy Arrangement
Bottom Heavy Arrangement
• In the adjoining fig., NS represents the meridian and AA’
represents the spin axis of the gyro. The rotor is spinning in
Clockwise direction when viewed from the end A
• Initially the axis is drifted East of the meridian and tilted up ; it is
required to align it along the meridian. A A’
• Which means that end A’ should precess to West
• As per the rule of precession, the effect of torque applied in one
plane will be visible in another perpendicular plane in the direction
of rotation, thus by making a Bottom heavy arrangement, the axle
point A’ can be made to precess towards meridian F
• The arrangement applies a force ‘F’ at the bottom of rotor as
shown; the effect of it will be visible as shown by red arrow (s),
pushing axle point A’ towards meridian

Gyro Notes_Capt. Vijay Kumar

 Undamped Gravity Controlled Gyro – Top Heavy Arrangement
Top Heavy Arrangement
• In the adjoining fig., NS represents the meridian and AA’
F
represents the spin axis of the gyro. The rotor is spinning in Anti
Clockwise direction when viewed from the end A
• Initially the axis is drifted East of the meridian and tilted up ; it is
required to align it along the meridian.
• Which means that end A’ should precess to West
• As per the rule of precession, the effect of torque applied in one A’
plane will be visible in another perpendicular plane in the direction
A
of rotation, thus by making a Top heavy arrangement, the axle
point A’ can be made to precess towards meridian
• The arrangement applies a force ‘F’ at top of rotor as shown; the
effect of it will be visible as shown by red arrow(s), pushing axle
point A’ towards meridian

Gyro Notes_Capt. Vijay Kumar

 Damped Gyro – Damping in Tilt, Azimuth
• Irrespective of the gravity controlled TOP or Bottom Heavy arrangement, still it is not suitable for
direction finding as once the corrective action is applied, it overshoots. This results in corrective
action being more strong, resulting in a gyro tracing an elliptical path

• In order to rectify this problem, the elliptical path traced by the axis needs to be damped so that
the Gyro along with seeking the meridian settles in it too

• Thus the North Seeking arrangement is altered to North Settling arrangement

• This is known as Damping the Gyro. Thus the gyro can be either

– Damped in tilt or

– Damped in Azimuth
• Damping in tilt is achieved by applying the damping torque in horizontal plane, so as to have the effect in
vertical plane and thus resulting the tilt of the North Seeking end of the gyro. The reduction in tilt eventually
Gyro Notes_Capt. Vijay Kumar
results in reduction of the precession in Azimuth
 Damped Gyro – Damping in Tilt
• Damping in tilt is achieved by applying the
damping torque in horizontal plane, so as to
have the effect in vertical plane (control the
tilt).
• As a result tilt of the North Seeking end of the
gyro decreases. The reduction in tilt eventually
results in reduction of the precession in
Azimuth.
• This progressive damping in tilt leads to
reduction of precession in Azimuth. Eventually
the North Seeking Axis of the gyro traces a Path traced by the North end of spin axis of a Gyro Damped in Tilt.
In North Latitude, Gyro eventually settles East of the Meridian
spiral path and settles as shown below
In South Latitude Gyro eventually settles West of the Meridian
Gyro Notes_Capt. Vijay Kumar
 Damped Gyro – Damping in Azimuth
• Damping in azimuth is achieved by introducing
a torque in a vertical plane, the effect of which
is observed in horizontal plane (damp the
azimuth)
• This causes a precession opposite to the gravity
control precession but out of phase with it, i.e.
with a time delay
• The resultant precession in a horizontal plane
causes the axis to overshoot the meridian less
each time it crosses it until the gyroscope axis
reaches its settling position as shown in the Path traced by the North end of spin axis Damped in Azimuth
Gyro damped in Azimuth, irrespective of the Latitude settles in the
adjoining diagram meridian

Gyro Notes_Capt. Vijay Kumar