Oscillatory angular speed detecting apparatus

Claim 2

An oscillatory angular velocity detecting apparatus, comprising: a pillar-shaped oscillator body; means for applying a drive signal to a transducer mounted to a first side surface of the oscillator body, said transducer comprising means for applying a driving force to said oscillator body; means, mounted to a second side surface substantially perpendicular to the first side surface of the oscillator body, i) for producing a first readout signal when no rotational force is added to the oscillator body and ii) for producing a second readout signal when a rotational force is added to the oscillator body; phase detecting means, i) for a first comparison of the respective first and second readout signals with the drive signal to obtain first and second compared readout signals, and ii) for a second comparison between the respective phases of the first and second compared readout signals to obtain a first DC angular signal having a voltage level; means for conducting amplitude detection by comparison between amplitudes of the first readout signal and the second readout signal to obtain a second DC angular signal having a voltage level; and means for deriving a strength value and a direction value, respectively, of angular velocity from the voltage level of the first DC angular signal.

Claim 3

The oscillatory angular velocity detecting apparatus of claim 1, wherein the phase detecting means includes: means for shaping the drive signal and the first and second readout signals to rectangular wave forms to obtain a rectangular drive signal analog and first and second rectangular readout signal analogs, respectively; means for extracting same polarity portions of the rectangular drive signal analog and the first rectangular readout signal analog and of the rectangular drive signal analog and the second rectangular readout signal analog to obtain first and second compared rectangular signals; means for full-wave rectification of the first and second compared rectangular signals to obtain first and second rectified rectangular signals; and means for smoothing the first and second rectified rectangular signals to obtain the first and second DC angular signals; and wherein the amplitude detecting means includes: means for full-wave rectification of the first and second readout signals to obtain third and fourth rectified signals and means for smoothing the third and fourth rectified signals to obtain the third and fourth DC angular signals; and means for detecting the strength and the direction of the angular velocity from the voltage levels of the first and second and third and fourth DC angular signals, respectively.

Claim 4

The oscillatory angular velocity detecting apparatus of claim 1, wherein the amplitude detecting means includes an amplitude detector and an AC/DC converter.

Claim 5

The oscillatory angular velocity detecting apparatus of claim 1, wherein said means for deriving includes a processor.

Claim 6

The oscillatory angular velocity detecting apparatus of claim 1, wherein the phase detecting means includes a phase detector, an AC/DC converter, and a processor.

Claim 7

The oscillatory angular velocity detecting apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor includes means for storing the angular velocities to be accessed by the first DC angular signal, and said means for storing includes a memory table.

Claim 8

The oscillatory angular velocity detecting apparatus of claim 1, wherein the phase detecting means includes a phase detector, an AC/DC converter, and a processor.

Claim 9

The oscillatory angular velocity detecting apparatus of claim 1, wherein said means for applying a drive signal includes gain control means for maintaining a predetermined level of the drive signal to the transducer.

Claim 10

An oscillatory angular velocity detecting apparatus, comprising: a pillar-shaped oscillator body; means for applying a fixed-reference-voltage-stabilized drive signal to a piezoelectric transducer mounted to a first side surface of the oscillator body, said transducer comprising means for applying a driving force to said oscillator body; means, mounted to a second side surface substantially perpendicular to the first side surface of the oscillator body, i) for producing a first readout signal when no rotational force is added to the oscillator body and ii) for producing a second readout signal when a rotational force is added to the oscillator body; phase detecting means, i) for a first comparison of the respective first and second readout signals with the drive signal to obtain respective first and second compared readout signals, and ii) for a second comparison between the respective phases of the first and second compared readout signals to obtain a first DC angular signal having a voltage level; means for conducting amplitude detection by comparison between amplitudes of the first readout signal and the second readout signal to obtain a second DC angular signal having a voltage level; and means for deriving a strength value and a direction value, respectively, of angular velocity from the voltage level of the first DC angular signal.

Claim 11

An oscillatory angular velocity detecting apparatus, comprising: a pillar-shaped oscillator body; means for applying a fixed-reference-voltage-stabilized drive signal to a piezoelectric transducer mounted to a first side surface of the oscillator body, said transducer comprising means for applying a driving force to said oscillator body; means, mounted to a second side surface substantially perpendicular to the first side surface of the oscillator body, i) for producing a first readout signal when no rotational force is added to the oscillator body and ii) for producing a second readout signal when a rotational force is added to the oscillator body; phase detecting means, i) for a first comparison of the respective first and second readout signals with the drive signal to obtain respective first and second compared readout signals, and ii) for a second comparison between the respective phases of the first and second compared readout signals to obtain a first DC angular signal having a voltage level; means for conducting amplitude detection by comparison between amplitudes of the first readout signal and the second readout signal to obtain a second DC angular signal having a voltage level; and means for deriving a strength value and a direction value, respectively, of angular velocity from the voltage level of the first DC angular signal.