Light Weight Electronic Pointing Device

KVH Industries plans to take advantage of the work performed in Phase I, as well as some extensive internally-funded R&D, to create an affordable, accurate, FOG-based Northfinder. The Phase II approach entails designing a true null seeking servo driven system, using a highly accurate single-axis FOG to measure earth’s rotation rate, integrated with two accelerometers for pitch and roll measurements. When treated as a target, North can be detected as the FOG is rotated until it ultimately measures ‘zero.’ The FOG optical circuit will be made from a small-diameter KVH fiber wound on a bobbin using a Quadrupole winding technique. Since the Phase I effort, KVH's small-diameter fiber has been perfected and tested with Quadrupole winding on standard production FOGs. Results of the accelerometer work performed in Phase I show that the pitch and roll accuracies required can be achieved, and an early Northfinding prototype recently built by KVH shows achievable North finding accuracy as well.