Apparatus and method for correcting ring laser gyroscope phase errors at turnaround
US5004344A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 11, 1989 |
| Grant date | Apr 2, 1991 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 11, 2009 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01C19/662
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
Digitized heterodyne signals in a ring laser gyroscope are processed to determine the phase and acceleration of heterodyne signals at turnarounds in the angular motion of the frame of the ring laser. A hybrid analog/digital design that incorporates the necessary logic processes the turnaround data to produce a phase correction that can be added to the gyroscope count to correct phase errors that at each turnaround. Separation of high speed data processing from lower rate data simplifies the code and permits evaluation of turnaround correction performance. A fully digital system determines a phase distribution for the detected turnarounds and processes the phase distributions of the heterodyne signals for a multiplicity of turnarounds to determine an angle towards which the phase distributions are skewed and the amount of that skew. A phase correction is then calculated to compensate for turnaround-induced errors in measurements of phase differences between the two beams as a function of the skew angle and the amount of skew of the phase distribution.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.