The characterization of a fibre-optic gyroscope

Abstract

The fibre-optic gyroscope is an optoelectronic device, that is, has as input a light signal which is converted to an electrical signal that depends on the rotation rate of the gyroscope. The fibre-optic gyroscope is basically constructed on the principle of Sagnac, who showed that a rotation causes a phase difference between two light beams travelling along a circular path in opposite directions. This work is a continuation of a project carried-out in the year 2008-2009, that set up the electrical apparatus such as to operate the fibre-optic gyroscope whilst providing rotational motion using a pendulum. During this work we used the same electrical assembly to perform results with the fibre-optic gyroscope used last year, as well as using a second fibre-optic gyroscope unit to confirm the methods used on a different unit. The effect of a magnetic field, temperature and noise are also discussed besides other results. Finally, an attempt at using the device to detect and measure the rotation of the Earth is described.