Fiber-Optics Data Transmission for a Gyro Stabilized Platform

Abstract

An optical fiber based data transmission link for a four-axis gyro stabilized inertial reference system is presented. The operation and configuration of the gyro stabilized platform is introduced to explain the requirement of data transmission. Four passive fiber optic rotary joints (FORJs) instead of traditional electrical sliprings are used to transmit optical signals between these relatively rotating gimbals. The hardware and software design of this optical fiber communication system operated at an updating rate of 1kHz are described to achieve high-speed, real-time, reliable data transmission. The experimental results show that the fiber optic rotary joint-based data transmission link is real-time and reliable. The use of FORJs as fiber optic sliprings will also result in an extremely low friction torque by comparing to electrical slipring assemblies. This allows the system designer to optimize the servo control performance for such high-precision gyro stabilized inertial reference systems.