A gyrocomputer was a type of positioning system used in navicomputers to locate a starship's location in the three-dimensional plane and assist the pilot in accurately steering it. A type of gyrocomputer was the AH 1701 which was constructed by Incom Corporation and used on board the CEC YT-1300 light freighters' Microaxial Rubicon navicomputers.
Gyrocomputers typically consisted of at least three control momentum gyroscopes (CMG)s positioned at right angles to one another inside a frame, which in turn was fixed parallel to the starship's "horizontal" plane -determined based on a planet's magnetic field and the telemetry received from a galactic network of positioning beacons. Once the "horizontal" baseline was established and the ship started moving along either of its axes (pitch, roll and yaw), the CMG rotors, mounted on motorized gimbals, would tilt. As the rotors would naturally attempt to spin in the same plane as their baseline, their angular momentum would change, causing a gyroscopic torque that could be used to accurately position the starship in the desired position.
The data generated by the physical CMGs inside the gyrocomputer casing would be picked up by specialized sensors in its exterior and fed directly into the navicomputer to be translated to starship movement. Despite this data being essential in helping establish a reference point in the three-dimensional realspace when in the absence of planetary terrain, most pilots were even unaware of the gyrocomputer's existence, due its highly automated nature and lack of an actual interface.
By the time of the Galactic Civil War, the Incom Corporation manufactured the AH 1701 gyrocomputer, which was considered to be one of the best available in the galactic market. Despite Incom supplying the AH 1701 to CEC for use on board its freighters, many considered the deal to be unethical, as it was in fact a questionable sub-contract that served only to make more profit for Incom's already wealthy executives.