Almost-sure stability of a gyropendulum subjected to white-noise random support motion

Instability behaviour of a gyropendulum subjected to white noise vertical s upport motion is examined. Conditions for almost-sure asymptotic stability are obtained explicitly. A stochastic averaging procedure is employed to ev aluate the maximal Lyapunov exponent. The sign of this exponent determines the instability behaviour of this system. Closed-form expressions for the i nstability conditions obtained in this study are employed to predict the mi nimum level of damping required to ensure almost-sure asymptotic stability. (C) 2000 Academic Press.