Behavior analysis of ferrofluidic gyroscope performances

In this work a gyroscope using a ferrofluidic inertial mass is presented. The device consists of a glass plate filled with de-ionized water and a drop of ferrofluid driven by an array of electromagnets. Perturbation is sensed by a differential inductive readout strategy. The main advantages of the methodology proposed are the absence of solid-inertial masses which improves the device reliability, the decoupling between the beaker housing the functional liquids (water and ferrofluid) and the electric part of the system (the driving electromagnets and the inductive readout) and the possibility to implement the sensing strategy in a preexisting structure (e.g. beaker based bio-medical tools) without drastic modification of the original architecture. Moreover, the beaker which is the low cost part of the system, could be considered the disposable part of the device while the more expensive electric part is re-usable. Experimental surveys have been performed to characterize both the driving system and the behavior of the device. A sensitivity of 186.8 mV/rad/s and a resolution of 0.12 rad/s have been obtained. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.