inertial guidance
- noun
- /ɪˈnɜrʃəl ˈɡaɪdəns/
- Specialized
:
guiado inercial
- It was a time before anyone put electric generators or radios into vehicles, before diesel-electric locomotives, and long before avionics, inertial guidance systems, or remotely controlled aircraft.
- inertial guidance system
- inertial guidance unit
Examples
-
During the flight test, engineers monitored the inertial guidance system to confirm that the aircraft was on the correct trajectory.
-
Let me show you the new inertial guidance system.
Fiction book (1994) -
The inertial guidance system, the engine, and ring laser gyros for the AJTs are being supplied by France.
Academic text (1999) -
The digital map database provides route information, and a sensor-based inertial guidance unit supports the GPS receivers.
Academic text (1994) -
What if, each trip to Erehwon, the shuttle's operating parameters were adjusted, its inertial guidance units altered beforehand?
Fiction book (1990) -
The sensors, which are part of an inertial guidance unit, include odometers to measure linear displacement and gyroscopes to measure rotation (or yaw) rate.
Academic text (1994) -
The rocket's inertial guidance system ensured it flew accurately through the atmosphere without relying on external signals.
-
Modern spacecraft utilize inertial guidance to maintain their course in space, even when distant from other reference points.
Synonyms
1
7.2
A machine that uses its own sensors to find a moving object's position and speed without outside signals
1
8.3
A way to find position and speed using motion sensors without external signals
A device that finds and controls a plane or spacecraft position using movement sensors instead of outside signals
How Autonomous
- Specialized
- Specialized
1
8.1
- Specialized
1
7.7
- Specialized
205
2.6
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'inertial' (relating to inertia or motion measurement) combined with 'guidance' (controlling a course) yields guidance/navigation based on inertia. Although the term is technical, its sense follows straightforwardly from the constituents, so a learner who knows both words can infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The noun inertial guidance comes from inertial, which comes from 'inertia' meaning that things keep moving, and guidance, a word for a system that leads. Imagine you are in a dark car with your eyes closed; by feeling pushes and turns you can tell if the car speeds up, slows down, or turns. So inertial guidance is a system that 'feels' movement inside the vehicle to find its way 'without outside signals'.