A Novel Approach to Double the Sensitivity of Polarization Maintaining Interferometric Fiber Optic Gyroscope

Abstract

<jats:p>In this paper, a novel optical approach to double the sensitivity to angular rate of interferometric fiber optic gyroscope (IFOG) is proposed. Two fiber polarization combiner/splitters (FPCSs), as the key components, are added in the traditional IFOG light path. The FPCSs are able to either combine two orthogonal polarizations transmitting at two different polarization-maintaining fibers (PMFs) into the two orthogonal axes of one PMF, respectively, or split two polarizations transmitting at the two orthogonal axes of one PMF into two polarizations to transmit at two different PMFs, respectively. Through the specific placement and coupling of these two FPCSs, the incident light can transmit twice along the polarization-maintaining fiber coil (PMFC). The novel approach is verified experimentally and the experimental results show consistency with the theoretical analysis. The proposed approach is able to double the sensitivity of IFOGs and can increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) without increasing the length of PMFC, which is very susceptible to environmental influences and is of great significance in the technical improvement of IFOGs, as well as the miniaturization of IFOGs.</jats:p>

Digital Control and Demodulation Algorithm for Compact Open-Loop Fiber-Optic Gyroscope

“…Open-loop gyroscopes have drawn much attention in high-end control fields such as automatic driving and robot control [ 5 ]. Much research has been carried out on the optical components, electric circuits, and algorithms to further drive down the cost and size of open-loop fiber-optic gyroscopes, the result of which makes them more competitive than Micro Electromechanical System gyro (MEMS) and low-end closed-loop gyros in the market [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. In terms of hardware circuits and control algorithms, the current research focuses on the realization of a more stable and concise control algorithm to reduce the computational power requirements of the processor.…”