Control of the apparent acceleration of a rigid body attached to a movable base by means of a two-degree-of-freedom gimbal

Abstract

A mechanical system consisting of a movable base and an object (rigid body) connected to the base by means of a two-degree-of-freedom gimbal with mutually perpendicular axes is considered. The possibility to eliminate the projection of the apparent acceleration of a given object point on the plane perpendicular to an object-fixed axis by controlling the rotation of the gimbal frames is investigated. The apparent acceleration of a given object point is the difference between the absolute acceleration vector and the gravitational acceleration vector at this point. Sufficient conditions under which this goal is attainable in principle are formulated. Equations governing the rotation of the gimbal frames are derived. This problem is related to the development of control systems for gravity-sensitive technologies in spacecraft.