Description of the device
The device is a MEMS gyroscope based on the butterfly gyroscope [1]developed at the Imego institute in Gothenburg, Sweden (see also: http://simulation.uni-freiburg.de/downloads/benchmark/The Butterfly Gyro (35889)). A gyroscope is a device used to measure angular rates in up to three axes.
The basic working principle of the gyroscope can be describes as follows[2]. Without applied external rotation, the paddles vibrate in phase with the function z(t ). Under the influence of an external rotation about the x-axis (drawn in red), an additional force due to the Coriolis acceleration acts upon the paddles. This force leads to an additional small out-of-phase vibration between two paddles on the same side of the bearing. This out-of phase vibration is measured as the difference of the z-displacement of the nodes with the red dots. Thus, measuring the displacement of two adjacent paddles, the rotation velocity can be ascertained.