On Tue, Dec 17, 2002 at 01:26:37AM +0000, Ian Woollard wrote: > I was wondering whether it might be possible to make an accurate > gyroscope out of a ball bearing floating in an air bearing. > > In principle you just start it spinning before launch, point 3 or 4 > optical mice at it, and read off the rotation; it should be quite > accurate, fairly light, and reasonably cheap. > > Comments?
I would imagine that reading the rotation of the bearing would be significantly more complex than pointing optical mice at it. Optical mice are designed to read textured surfaces, and a ball bearing would need to be quite smooth to avoid being affected by movement of air. I don't really see the problem with FOGs. They're not particularly expensive when you get anywhere above the scale we're working at now, and for our current scale, decent solid state gyros should work fine ($50-$150 range).
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