Gyrostabilizer Vehicular Technology

This paper examines the current state of gyrostabilizer vehicular technology. With no previous description of the wide range and variety of gyrostabilizer technology, this paper provides a review of the current state of the art. This includes a detailed examination of gyrostabilizer vehicular systems, dynamics and control. The present review first describes the historical development of gyroscopic systems before going on to describe the various system characteristics, including an overview of gyrostabilizer vehicular applications and system designs for land, sea and spacecraft. The equations of motion for generic gyroscopic systems are derived following momentum (Newton-Euler) and energy (Lagrange) based approaches and examples provided. The derivations are made generically for individual components, enabling direct application for a wide variety of systems. In the final section, a review of gyrostabilizer control strategies is presented and the remaining challenges are discussed. Gyrostabilizer systems are anticipated to become more widely adopted as they provide an effective means of motion control with several significant advantages for land, sea and spacecraft. (101 references). [DOI: 10.1115/1.4004837]