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What type of drift would instrument error cause in a conventional gyroscope?
  • A
    Transport wander.
  • B
    Apparent wander.
  • C
    Real wander.
  • D
    Earth rotation error.

Any departure of a gyro axis from its original orientation is called wander. Wander may be either real or apparent (the difference is explained below) or a combination of both. Wander is subdivided into drift and topple. If the gyro axis wanders in the horizontal plane, it is called drift, either real or apparent.

REAL WANDER
In real wander, the axis of the gyro moves with respect to inertial space. This departure from the original orientation is caused by manufacturing imperfections, such as uneven rotor bearing friction, gimbal friction, imbalance in the mass of the rotor and unbalanced gimbals.

Real wander can be reduced by higher quality engineering and manufacturing. Depending on the application, the cost of reducing real wander may not be justified by the level of accuracy required.

As with instrument error, gyros need to be as accurate as the need of the application in use, but over-engineering costs extra money. Real wander can also be known as ‘random’ wander.

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