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From: NIC-11@USC-ISI.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Fiberoptic Gyroscope
Message-ID: <13230@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Sep-84 10:46:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.13230
Posted: Fri Sep  7 10:46:00 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Sep-84 03:16:16 EDT
Lines: 23


The September-October 84 Edition of Naval Aviation News carried
the following item:

>A gyro with no moving parts-yes, you read it correctly-is being
studied at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL).  A team of
scientist at NRL has developed and laboratory-demonstrated a low
cost, highly sensitive prototype fiberoptic gyroscope that may
revolutionize ~rthe field of rotation sensors.  The use of
fiberoptics in rotation sensing has the potential for developing
low cost, compact instruments having no moving parts.  Therefore,
fiberoptic gyros could be used for high-precision air and
shipboard inertial navigation and aircraft flight control.  In
preliminary lab tests, the NRL sensor performed almost perfectly,
indicating a high sensitivity rotation detection, low-noise level
and a good long-term, zero-point stability.<

While I understand how optics are used as sensors of rotation on
conventional gyro applications, could someone explain (in lay
terms) what property(s) of fiberoptics could be used to sense
rotation?

Jim Blomquist (NIC-11 at USC-ISI