A liquid rate gyroscope using electro-conjugate fluid

We propose a novel liquid rate gyroscope using an electro-conjugate fluid (ECF). The electro-conjugate fluid is a dielectric fluid that works as a smart fluid, generating a powerful jet flow (ECF jet) when subjected to a high DC voltage. In this study,we introduce this functional fluid into gyroscopes. Although the sensing principle for angular rate is based on that of a conventional gas rate sensor, the proposed gyroscope has a much higher sensitivity because the density of the liquid is generally higher than that of a gas. In addition, the gyroscope is small in size because the ECF jet is generated only with a pair of tiny electrodes. In other words, the pumping part of the proposed gyroscope does not need mechanical moving parts, resulting in an ECF gyroscope more suitable for micro-applications than a gas rate sensor, which requires a pumping mechanism inside. We fabricated a prototype of the liquid rate gyroscope (40 mm x 60 mm x t7 mm) and confirmed its characteristics by experiments. The experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed liquid rate gyroscope. The prototype has a scale factor of -29 mV/(degrees/s) with an applied voltage of 4.5 kV, which is 2.2 times more sensitive than the conventional gas rate gyroscope. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.