THE APPLICATION OF OPTICAL GYROSCOPE IN DEVELOPING INERTIAL NAVIGATION SYSTEM

Abstract

The reduction in cost and size for navigational equipment plays a significant role in meeting the demands of the maritime industry in compliance with performance and reliability. The conventional mechanical gyroscope depends on its heavy and bulky configuration to achieve its commercial maturity. Hence, new technologies, such as optical fibre, are being developed as an alternative for the mechanical gyroscope. Optical fibre is a technology that offers a higher performance due to its exceptional accuracy even at a significantly smaller configuration. Instead of using the same principle as mechanical gyroscopes, optical gyroscopes apply the Sagnac Effect, which utilises light to measure the motion of the vehicle. The different configurations of optical gyroscopes allow them to be generally categorised into two, Fibre Optic Gyroscope and Ring Laser gyroscope. Optical gyroscopes are expected to have stable and consistent market analysis growth as they offer exceptional performance. Due to its reliability, optical gyroscopes are implemented in modern technologies. One of them is the Inertial Navigation System, a system that measures and tracks the position, movement, and orientation of the vessel. The attitude of the vessel can be measured in all three-dimensional axes, allowing six degrees of freedom of the vessel to be determined. To construct a reliable Inertial Navigation system, a triad of accurate gyroscopes are needed, and optical gyroscopes are the unrivalled choice to serve that purpose.