Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Gyroscope

The Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Gyroscope (NMRG) is being developed by the Northrop Grumman Corporation (NGC). Cold and hot atom interferometer based gyroscopes have suffered from Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) challenges and limits in bandwidth, scale factor stability, dead time, high rotation rate, vibration, and acceleration. NMRG utilizes the fixed precession rate of a nuclear spin in a constant magnetic field as a reference for determining rotation, providing continuous measurement, high bandwidth, stable scale factor, high rotation rate measurement, and low sensitivity to vibration and acceleration in a low SWaP package. Real time closed loop implementation of the sensor significantly decreases environmental and systematic sensitivities and supports a compact and low power digital signal processing and control system. Therefore, the NMRG technology holds great promise for navigation grade performance in a low cost SWaP package. A new version of the NMRG has been constructed and testing is ongoing. The poster will describe the history, operation, and design of the NMRG. General performance results will also be presented along with recent test results.