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-Gimbal Lock        

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"Animation: a set of three gimbals mounted together to allow three degrees of freedom."

Gimbal lock is the loss of one degree of freedom that occurs when the axes of two of the three gimbals are driven into the same place and cannot compensate for rotations around one axis in three dimensional space.

The word lock is misleading: no gimbal is restrained. All three gimbals can still rotate freely about their respective axes of suspension. Nevertheless, because of the parallel orientation of two of the gimbal axes there is no axis available to accommodate rotation along one axis.

Video: Gimbal Lock explained

See also