Gyroscopes are integrated circuits used to measure the angular velocity of an object to which they are attached. They are used in applications including: robotics movement, gesture-based user interfaces, mobile phones, vehicle chassis rollover sensing, inertial measurement and platform stabilization. Gyroscopes are based upon micro electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) technology. They are available in devices that support single, dual and three axis measurement options. Three axis devices support angular velocity measurement on X, Y and Z axes, also referred to as yaw, pitch and roll. MEMS accelerometers are typically available in tiny packages, have low power requirements and utilize serial interfaces like I2C and SPI.
Full-scale angular velocity measurement range is a very important consideration for gyroscopes. This is specified in degrees per second (+/- no/s). Sensitivity is also important – usually limited by the integrated analog to digital converter (ADC) bit precision. They have a low pass characteristic on their measurements, which limits the highest rotational velocity that can be measured. The maximum sample rate determines how accurately the gyroscope can measure instantaneous velocity or the rate of change of the same. Rate of change of rotational velocity is referred to as rotational acceleration.
Many devices will allow for measurements to be synchronized with a signal strobe. They also have selectable filters and integrate FIFO memories to store values. Memory buffering allows a processor system to burst out blocks of measurements rather than have to process one sample at a time. Selectable filtering enables reduction of high frequency noise and changes higher than the Nyquist rate of the sampling process. Such high frequency changes can create aliasing effects that lead to errors in measurement. Read more Read less