Written by one of the field’s leading experts, this landmark reference presents a thorough system analysis of the fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG), describing the concepts that have emerged as the preferred solutions for obtaining a practical device. This book’s first edition was published in the early 1990’s. If the basic design rules of the FOG have remained unchanged, the technology has certainly matured, and the expectations presented in the first edition have been largely exceeded. This second edition is updated throughout, featuring new content on Allan variance; testing with optical coherence domain polarimetry; the Shupe effect; and rare-Earth doped fiber ASE sources. In addition, brand new comprehensive appendixes cover the optics, single-mode fiber optics, and integrated optics necessary to understand the fiber gyro and provide an appropriate vocabulary for communicating with electronic component designers.

"Realizing the potential of the fiber optic gyro, like the ring laser gyro, has been a long and expensive process. Many researchers have made important enabling contributions, and many more engineers have worked diligently for many years on solving the problems associated with realizing viable inertial navigation and guidance produce at affordable costs. This book arose from efforts to form a special session to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the first hardware demonstration of the fiber gyro in 1976 by Vali and Shorthill. The chapters contain contributions from key engineers and scientists who have worked from as early as 1977 to the present on manufacturing high-performance fiber gyros for many applications"--

This AGARDograph is written by experts from France, Germany, Russia and the United States. Only the radical change of the political and military situation within the last decade made it possible to have the subject Optical Gyros covered by scientists and engineers from East and West. Until this change, Optical Gyros and their research and development were mostly handled as top secret. The more it can be seen as a giant step forward that we have in our hands an unclassified and nevertheless in depth treatment of Optical Gyros from scientists from East and West. Optical Gyros replacing the fast rotating rotor gyros as sensors for angular displacement or angular rate opened new possibilities in applications as well as in production. Especially in the field of inertial navigation, Optical Gyros replaced the mechanical gyro. Using them in Strapdown Inertial Navigation Systems in combination with Satellite Navigation Systems, offers new systems for dual usage in military and civil applications. This volume can be divided into four main parts. The first one gives a detailed description of the laser and fiber optical gyro theory, the main sources of errors and the methods used to reduce their influence. The analysis of many types of modern laser gyros allowing various requirements to be met is presented in the second part. The reader can also find here some areas of practical applications of laser gyros. The third part is devoted to fiber optical gyros that have been developed recently. They are so successful both technologically and commercially that they are in great demand. The last part of the book considers special applications of optical gyros.

This monograph collects and critically reviews the main results obtained by the scientific community in gyroscope technologies research field. It describes architectures, design techniques and fabrication technology of angular rate sensors proposed in literature. MEMS, MOEMS, optical and mechanical technologies are discussed together with achievable performance. The book also consideres future research trends aimed to cover special applications. The book is intended for researchers and Ph.D. students interested in modelling, design and fabrication of gyros. The book may be a useful education support in some university courses focused on gyro technologies.

The book presents the detailed study of optoelectronic gyroscopes, especially Ring Laser Gyroscopes (RLGs) and Fiber Optic Gyroscopes (FOGs). It discusses their design in detail to optimize their performance, besides explaining the related concepts and the new developments. Other topics covered in this book are double ion beam sputtering for fabricating RLG mirrors on the high quality optical substrates, optical testing, and thin films characterization techniques. The book will be useful for the researchers, professionals, and engineers working in the areas of optical gyroscopes and the related technologies.