Environmental effects on interferometric fiber optic gyroscope performance

Abstract

Today main performance limitations for fiber optic gyroscope technology are its sensitivity to temperature fluctuations and vibration. Shupe error is the main error source for both disturbances. We propose an approach to reduce the thermal sensitivity by controlling the strain inhomogeneity through the fiber coil. The approach is based on advanced fiber coil modeling, which is verified by a series of experiments. Vibration is often a neglected disturbance by the researchers as it highly depends on the integrated platform. We propose a model for bias error formation due to optical power fluctuations under vibration. Model is composed of power fluctuation characteristics, spurious rotation rate formation due to mechanical Shupe error, and the suppression of the rotation rate by the closed-loop operation. Lastly, we introduce the concept of angle random walk performance degradation under vibration due to interferogram nonlinearity.