Fiber Optic Gyro (FOG) Performance Improvement

Research is proposed to develop and demonstrate innovative, revolutionary approaches in components and architecture, to improve fiber optic gyro (FOG) performance without increasing current FOG size and weight. Gyroscopes are critical components of many inertial measurement units (IMU) including proposed MDA systems such as Airborne Laser (ABL). The FOG is potentially a more reliable and less costly inertial sensor than mechanical gyroscopes and ring laser gyroscopes (RLGs). However, in currently available units, manufacturing techniques and error sources have prevented FOGs from achieving precision performance at a reasonable cost and weight. Fibernetics will investigate new optical fiber, coil and architecture designs that will provide an expected order of magnitude improvement in performance over current high performance units with similar fiber length. FOG performance will be improved dramatically while maintaining the same size, weight, and power requirements. Phase I will focus on fiber, coil and FOG architecture designs. In Phase II, at least two engineering prototype FOGs will be fabricated, tested and evaluated.