Laboratory Method for Evaluating the Pointing Stability of two degrees of freedom gyroscopic stabilizers

In this article we propose a new laboratory method for obtaining the pointing stability of a two degrees of freedom gyro stabilized platform by using a three degrees of freedom test platform. Various rated motions were applied through the three degrees of freedom test platform to the gyroscopic stabilizer and the behavior of the stabilizer to these excitations was reproduced on a checker board which placed at a distance of 7 meters from the gyroscopic stabilizer and the laser beam trajectory during the test was filmed by a video camera. Upon completing the test, the films stored in the camera for each applied motion were duly studied using Matlab and image processing algorithms and the beam displacements from the positions marked at the outset of the test were determined. These displacements represent the pointing stability of the tested gyroscopic stabilizer in terms of degrees. Using this technique yielded a pointing stability of 0.035 degrees on the gyroscopic stabilizer in the worst case where an excitation motion with amplitude 0.093 and frequency 5.7 Hertz was applied. The results were in good agreement with those obtained from simulation in the Matlab/Simulink environments.