A tactical fiber optic gyro with all-digital signal processing

Northrop's Electronics Systems Division has built and tested a tactical fiber optic gyro (FOG) with all-digital signal processing. The Northrop FOG uses 160 meters of polarization maintaining optical fiber wound on a spool 29 mm in diameter. Without any data compensation, this FOG has demonstrated excellent scale factor stability and non-linearity (<100 ppm) over a high dynamic range (/spl plusmn/1400/spl degs), low random walk (<0.02/spl deg/spl radic/h), and outstanding bias stability over temperature and day-to-day (<1/spl degh). An inertial measurement unit (IMU) utilizing a FOG/MSA (micro silicon accelerometer) cluster has been developed and integrated with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. Testing was done to demonstrate performance of the sensor and IMU over the military environment.<
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