Electronically programmable actively damped sensor mount

Claim 1

An assembly for mounting an object comprising: at least one support arm; at least one connector through which said object is rotationally attached to said support arm such that rotation of said object may occur about a first axis of rotation; a base rotatably connected to said support arm such that rotation of said support arm relative to said base occurs about a second axis of rotation; and at least one active damping system for damping the rotation of an object to an extent dependent upon the angular velocity of the object, said active damping system comprising: a torque controller; a speed measuring device connected to said torque controller so as to allow speed measurement data created by said speed measuring device in connection with a speed measurement correlated to rotation of said object to be transferred to said torque controller; and a torque generating device connected to said torque controller so as to allow said torque controller to transmit damping torque data to said torque generating device to control a damping torque generated by said torque generating device; wherein said damping torque acts in a decelerating manner on the rotation of said object; wherein said at least one active damping system includes a first active damping system capable of conveying a damping torque that acts to oppose rotation of said object about said first axis of rotation.