MEMS-Based North-Orienting System

The Army uses Unattended Ground Sensors (UGS) for the location and tracking of enemy soldiers and vehicles. The sensors can often determine range and relative bearing to the signal source, but without knowing its own orientation, these data cannot be converted to the geo location and ground track of the source. There is therefore a need for a sensor to determine the UGS azimuth, roll, and pitch relative to an earth-referenced frame. Creare proposes to complete the development, fabrication, and testing of a novel, high performance, MEMS gyrocompass based on the most accurate MEMS rate gyroscopes currently available. The compass will provide azimuth, roll, and pitch with much better than 2 degrees of accuracy in a ruggedized package capable of withstanding the harsh environment in the field. The sensor will be low-cost and consume little power. In Phase I we demonstrated that the key components of the compassthe precision rate gyro and high-accuracy inclinometerscan provide the accuracy and stability needed to meet the UGS pointing accuracy requirements. In Phase II, we will build a complete prototype MEMS gyrocompass and demonstrate its use for UGS applications.