Detection methods of earth's rotation rate with a MEMS gyroscope

High precision gyroscopes are often used to find the north direction or determine the orientation by detecting the horizontal component of the earth's rotation rate in the field of north-seeking, oil drilling and mining. The ability to measure the earth's rotation rate accurately for gyroscopes can be applied as a basic criterion in those areas. MEMS gyroscopes were thought unable to measure the earth's rotation rate because of its noise and low precision. The detection methods of earth's rotation rate with a MEMS gyroscope were proposed, including the static and dynamic methods. Several major factors that influence the accuracy were analyzed and compensated carefully. The multi-position static and dynamic experiments were completed with a MEMS gyroscope. For the 36-position static measurement method, a single test takes 720 seconds, the 10 times' average error is less than 0.03%. For the dynamic experiments with a period of 18 seconds, a single test takes 108 seconds, the 10 times' average error is less than 1%. The experimental results indicate that the MEMS gyroscopes have great potentials in the field of north-seeking and orientating.