A Transportable Atomic Gravimeter with Constraint-Structured Active Vibration Isolation.

Many efforts have been taken in recent years to push atomic gravimeters toward practical applications. We demonstrate an atomic gravimeter named NIM-AGRb2 that is transportable and suitable for high-precision gravity measurements. Constraint-structured active vibration isolation (CS-AVI) is used to reduce the ground vibration noise. The constraint structure in CS-AVI ensures that the isolation platform only has vertical translation, with all other degrees of freedom (DoFs) being constrained. Therefore, the stability of active vibration isolation is enhanced. With the implementation of CS-AVI, the sensitivity of NIM-AGRb2 reached as low as 20.5 µGal/Hz1/2. The short-term sensitivity could be further reduced to 10.8 µGal/Hz1/2 in a seismologic observation station. Moreover, we evaluated the system noise of the gravimeter, and the results were consistent with our observations.

Effects and Prospects of the Vibration Isolation Methods for an Atomic Interference Gravimeter.

An atomic interference gravimeter (AIG) is of great value in underwater aided navigation, but one of the constraints on its accuracy is vibration noise. For this reason, technology must be developed for its vibration isolation. Up to now, three methods have mainly been employed to suppress the vibration noise of an AIG, including passive vibration isolation, active vibration isolation and vibration compensation. This paper presents a study on how vibration noise affects the measurement of an AIG, a review of the research findings regarding the reduction of its vibration, and the prospective development of vibration isolation technology for an AIG. Along with the development of small and movable AIGs, vibration isolation technology will be better adapted to the challenging environment and be strongly resistant to disturbance in the future.

Design of Active Vibration Isolation Controller with Disturbance Observer-Based Linear Quadratic Regulator for Optical Reference Cavities.

The optical reference cavity in an ultrastable laser is sensitive to vibrations; the microvibrations in a space platform affect the accuracy and stability of such lasers. In this study, an active vibration isolation controller is proposed to reduce the effect of vibrations on variations in the cavity length and improve the frequency stability of ultrastable lasers. Based on the decentralized control strategy, we designed a state-differential feedback controller with a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) and added a disturbance observer (DOB) to estimate the source noise. Experiments were conducted using an active vibration isolation system; the results verified the feasibility and performance of the designed controller. The accelerations along the axis (Z-, X-, Y-) directions were suppressed in the low-frequency band within 200 Hz, and the root-cumulative power spectral densities (PSDs) declined to 1.17 × 10-5, 7.16 × 10-6, and 8.76 × 10-6 g. This comprehensive vibration met the requirements of an ultrastable laser.

Design and Experimentation of a Self-Sensing Actuator for Active Vibration Isolation System with Adjustable Anti-Resonance Frequency Controller.

The vibration isolation system is now indispensable to high-precision instruments and equipment, which can provide a low vibration environment to ensure performance. However, the disturbance with variable frequency poses a challenge to the vibration isolation system, resulting in precision reduction of dynamic modeling. This paper presents a velocity self-sensing method and experimental verification of a vibration isolation system. A self-sensing actuator is designed to isolate the vibration with varying frequencies according to the dynamic vibration absorber structure. The mechanical structure of the actuator is illustrated, and the dynamic model is derived. Then a self-sensing method is proposed to adjust the anti-resonance frequency of the system without velocity sensors, which can also reduce the complexity of the system and prevent the disturbance transmitting along the cables. The self-sensing controller is constructed to track the variable frequency of the disturbance. A prototype of the isolation system equipped with velocity sensors is developed for the experiment. The experiment results show that the closed-loop transmissibility is less than -5 dB in the whole frequency rand and is less than -40 dB around, adding anti-resonance frequency which can be adjusted from 0 Hz to initial anti-resonance frequency. The disturbance amplitude of the payload can be suppressed to 10%.