Multicore Fiber Optic Gyro

Inertial Navigation Units (INU) preferentially rely on Fiber Optic Gyro (FOG) technology, which has been proven from a performance perspective. Producibility has also improved with the information processing function well in hand and Photonic Integrated Circuits (PIC) advancing to TRL 9 or higher. The one remaining stubborn production bottleneck is winding the optical fiber Sagnac effect sensor coil. Present day coil winding is high skill, arduous, and slow because; 1) winding pattern is complex, 2) total precision is necessary, and 3) use of adhesive during winding makes coil winding even more demanding. Several attempts have been made to automate winding quadrupole gyro coils, but these attempts have succeeded only for very low performance coils. Because quadrupole winding is such slow, painstaking work, the number of properly trained and high-performance coil capable technicians in the United States can be counted on the fingers of two hands. This personnel environment puts a severe constraint on the attainable production volume and associated negative feedback severely distorts the gyro cost structure. 4S envisions the development of a gyro coil winding that uses multicore optical fiber. This advance, along with Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) technology, which is enabling, creates a new paradigm in FOG production.