Gyroscopic Navigator

a gyroscopic device generally intended for finding the location of an object and the parameters of its motion. Such devices utilize gyroscopes in combination with accelerometers and a computer. The main components of a gyroscopic navigator are a vertical inertial gyroscope, which reproduces the vertical of the location (the plane of the horizon) and determines the linear velocity of the object, and an azimuthal (or directional) gyroscope, which determines the azimuthal orientation of the accelerometers. Gyroscopic navigators, together with computers and with devices that compensate for errors from outside sources (speedometers and coordinate measuring devices), constitute the so-called inertial navigational system. Sometimes this designation applies to the gyroscopic navigator itself. Gyroscopic navigators are capable of finding the positional coordinates of an object (its latitude, longitude, and so on) and the parameters of its motion (course, speed, flight altitude, and angles of attack and sideslip).