Experimental evaluation of a fiber optics gyroscope for improving dead-reckoning accuracy in mobile robots

This paper presents results from the experimental evaluation of a state-of-the-art fiber-optics gyroscope. The purpose of our experiments was to evaluate the suitability of this gyroscope for enhancing dead-reckoning in mobile robots. The evaluated gyroscope was the "Autogyro Navigator" made by Andrews. For a 4/spl times/4 m square path the dead-reckoning error when using this gyro was less than /spl plusmn/1.2/spl deg/ in orientation and about 10 cm (4 in) in position.