Digital feedback systems and methods for optical gyroscopes

摘要

A digital feedback system for an optical gyroscope include a fiber optic sensing coil, an optical phase modulator, a photo detector and a processor. The sensing coil induces a phase differential between light waves traveling though the coil. The optical phase modulator causes a second phase differential between the light waves. The photo detector receive the light waves and outputs an intensity signal representing a phase difference between the light waves. The processor determines a rate of rotation of the fiber optic sensing coil based on the phase difference. for the system operates by generating a closed loop feedback signal, demodulating the signal to determine the phase difference, determining a rate of rotation, periodically incrementing a feedback ramp signal once every τ second period based on the rate of rotation, and resetting the feedback ramp signal when the ramp is incremented a predetermined number of times since a previous reset.