<title>Development of fiber optic gyroscopes for industrial and consumer applications</title>

Abstract

This paper will present the current status of the fiber optic gyroscope (FOG), a ring interferometric rotation sensor for commercial applications by industries and consumers. An open-loop FOG with all polarization-maintaining fiber components is being used in these applications. One primary application is in vehicle navigation systems for automobiles, and a mass-produced has already been installed in luxury automobiles in Japan. Another application is in sweeper robots, Other applications such as a route-measuring system for boreholes, an attitude-controlling system for industrial helicopters, and an optocompass or north-seeking instrument will also be described. These FOGs are compact and reliable and need only a +12 V or a +24 V DC power source. This bias error is determined by the electrical system rather than the optical system and varies between 0.01 and 36 deg/h depending on the design of the signal-processing unit. The scale factor error varies between 0.1% and 1% also depending on the design, however, it is stable over the temperature range from -30 to 85 degree(s)C.