TRAINING NOTES

CODE: 2T-13/044
IIAE Aircraft Aerodynamics, Structures And Systems
(Part-I)

INS/IRS

(INERTIAL NAVIGATION/REFERENCE SYSTEMS)

RING LASER GYROSCOPE (RLG)

 Introduction

This type of unit is essentially a rate sensor, and it is only in this context that it can justify the
name 'gyroscope'. It has no rotating mass or gimbal system, and therefore does not possess the
conventional characteristics of rigidity and precession. Since it has no gimbal system it is, and can only
be, used in a 'strapdown' configuration, so that its attitude output signals can be supplied direct to the
navigation computer, and it eliminates the use of complex platform levelling systems. It has many other
advantages such as wide dynamic range, allowing of very short alignment times, and high reliability
factors, and is adopted as standard in the inertial reference systems (IRS) currently in use in many types
of civil aircraft.

 Construction and operation

The basis of a typical sensor is a triangular block of specially fabricated glass ('Cervit' glass) that
is extremely hard and does not expand or contract under varying temperature conditions. By means
of computerized ultrasonic diamond-drilling techniques, a cavity is formed within the whole block. A
precision-made mirror is fitted at each corner of the block, and a cathode and two anodes are located as
shown in Fig. The mirrors serve as both reflectors and optical filters, reflecting the light frequency for
which they are designed, and absorbing all others.
The cavity is filled with a lasing medium (typically helium-neon) and when excited by an
electrical potential across the cathode and anodes, the medium is ionized and is transformed into light in
the orange-pink part of the visible spectrum. By design, two light beams resonating at a single frequency
are emitted and are made to travel in opposite directions around the cavity. Since the beams travel at the
same constant speed and are 'bounced off the mirrors, then in a static condition of the sensor block, they
take the same time to complete a closed path in inertial space around the cavity.
Although the frequency is determined by the gas that is 'lasing', it can be varied somewhat by
changing the path length over which the light waves have to travel; for a given length there are an integral
number of waves occurring over the complete path. If the length is altered, the waves will either be
compressed or expanded, and this results, respectively, in an increase or decrease of their frequency. Both
beams combine in an optical sensor, or readout detector, located at one corner of the block. The sensor
operates on the interferometer principle, i.e. it contains a prism that deflects the beams so that they
'interfere' with each other in order to form what is termed. a fringe pattern.
As in the case of a gimballed platform-type of INS, three sensors are required to be mounted in an aircraft
so as to detect attitude changes about the pitch, roll and yaw axes. When the aircraft is in straight and
level flight, all three RLG sensors are in a static condition, and so the resonant frequencies of the beams
are equal.
If now the aircraft's attitude is changed say, about, the pitch axis, the corresponding sensor will
also be rotated about its axis perpendicular to the plane of the beams. Since the beams are travelling at a
constant speed on paths in inertial space, the bodily rotation of the sensor will then be with respect to
 TRAINING NOTES
CODE: 2T-13/044
IIAE Aircraft Aerodynamics, Structures And Systems
(Part-I)

inertial space. This means, therefore, that the beam travelling from one mirror to the next in the direction
of sensor rotation will move through a greater distance than the second beam that is travelling in the
opposite direction. Thus, the times taken for the beams to travel around the cavity of the sensor will now

differ. As already pointed out, a change in path distance produces a change in frequency of wave
propagation, and so by measuring the frequency difference resulting from rotation of an RLG sensor, the
angular rate at which it does so can be determined.

The spacing of the light and dark portions of the fringe pattern referred to above depend on the
angle between the interfering of the beams and their frequency. When both beams are of the same
frequency, the pattern is stationary, and constant signals are produced by two photo-diode type detectors,
which are, spaced an odd number of quarter wavelengths apart in the pattern. Thus, when rotation of the
sensor causes a difference between frequencies, the fringe pattern moves across the detectors, and due to
the spacing of the beams, one detector will receive maximum light when the other is at half intensity.
Each detector then converts this fringe pattern movement into signal pulses, the phasing of which give the
direction of sensor rotation, while the frequency is proportional to the angular rate of rotation. The
signals, which are in digital format, are transmitted to the appropriate attitude computing software within
the IR computer.
The relationship between the input rate of rotation and the output frequency is a linear one, and
ideally, it should remain so throughout a full rotation of an RLG sensor. At low input rotation rates
tending towards zero, however, the output frequency can become non-linear, and at a certain threshold
value can drop abruptly to zero. This phenomenon is known as 'lock-in', and is due to small amounts of
energy from the beams being back-scattered into each other, the energy causing the beam frequencies to
be pulled together until eventually the beams synchronize. Since extremely low rotation rates (typically
0.001º/hr) are required to be measured in IN/IR systems, 'lock-in' can result in undesirable errors. In order
therefore to circumvent these effects, a technique known as 'dither' is introduced, and is effected by means
 TRAINING NOTES
CODE: 2T-13/044
IIAE Aircraft Aerodynamics, Structures And Systems
(Part-I)

of a piezo-electric motor. This motor is mounted on the sensor in such a way that it vibrates the laser ring
about its input axis through the 'lock-in' region, thereby unlocking the beams and enabling the optical
sensor to detect the smaller movement of the fringe pattern. The motions caused by the dither motor are
decoupled from the output of an RLG.