Development of fiber optic gyroscopes

Abstract

Gyroscope is a kind of rotation rate sensor, which is widely used in inertial applications, robotics, automation control, etc. The traditional gyroscope is mechanical. The principles of all optical gyroscopes are based on Sagnac effect. The first optical gyroscope, gas ring laser gyroscope, was invented in 1960s. Owing to its higher performance, ring laser gyroscope is now also widely used in inertial applications, but it is quite complicated and costly. Fiber optic gyroscope is proposed in the late 1970s, and now it is coming into applications to replace its counterpart due to its unique advantages like other fiber optic sensors, such as ruggedness, flexibility, low weight, and possibly low cost.