What do Fiber Optic Gyroscopes (FOG) use for?

Fiber optic gyroscope is a device that uses changes in optical path length to measure angular velocity. It is widely used in navigation, seismic exploration, offshore oil exploration and other fields. By using optical fibers as sensitive components, the fiber optic gyroscopes have the advantages of high precision, resistance to vibration interference, and small size, so they are widely used in many industries.

The difference between fiber optic gyro and ring laser gyro

Laser gyroscope has more higher precision. Both are optical gyroscopes, the fiber optic gyro and ring laser gyro are all based on the Sagnac effect. The difference is that one propagates in the fiber and the other propagates in the resonant cavity. Fiber optic gyros are low in cost, but are susceptible to uneven thermal expansion and contraction caused by temperature changes and tension changes during winding. The laser gyro light propagates in the resonant cavity and is less affected by the outside world, so the accuracy is higher, meanwhile the cost of ring laser gyro is much more expensive.

Compared with traditional mechanical gyro (dynamically tuned gyro) and ring laser gyro, FOG (fiber optic gyro) is a best solution to be an alternative of mechanical gyro or ring laser gyro, and with the following characteristics:

1. No moving parts or wearing parts

2. Low cost, long life, small size and light weight

3. Wide dynamic range and wide precision application coverage

4. Flexible structural design and simple production process

5. No need for ignition voltage of several thousand volts

6. There is no mechanical jitter device to overcome "self-locking"

7. No need for ultra-high-precision optical processing

8. Simple assembly process, low power consumption and high reliability