| Research on the optical fiber gyroscope in the past decade has brought it to a very promising stage as a sensitive, reliable, compact, light weight, rugged and potentially low-cost rotation sensor with no moving parts. In order to meet the most demanding performance requirements for inertial navigation applications, better stability for both bias and scale factor is necessary. We have studied the limitations imposed on the bias drift of a fiber gyroscope by the imperfections of available, non-ideal optical components. Improvement of component performance beyond today's limits is a very difficult engineering task; therefore, alternative ways of reducing the gyro's output bias drift are desirable. We propose new techniques that can be used simultaneously with those currently employed for the suppression of bias drift, improving the overall drift figure of the fiber gyro by at least an order of magnitude. Experimental results showing the effectiveness of these techniques are discussed, together with the limitations of the system under investigation, for which a peak-to-peak bias stability of 0.01... |
