Innovative Inertia Devices

The primary objective of this project is to develop of several novel classes of inertia devices such as accelerometers for use for flight control in high-G gun-fired munitions and mortars. The proposed accelerometer concepts are intended to provide high sensitivity of better than 0.05 G while being capable of withstanding setback acceleration levels of over 120,000 Gs and are intended to require minimal time (3 msec or less) to settle post firing and consume relatively low power. The inertia devices are to be produced using commonly used MEMS manufacturing processes, thereby are expected to be relatively low cost and highly reliable and have a wide range of potential commercial applications. The proposed novel inertia device designs are scalable across all munitions applications and should allow the development of low-cost inertia-based components for flight control of high-G gun-fired munitions with the goal of providing very affordable guidance and control systems for all future guided munitions applications, including large to medium caliber rounds.