Tech Articles

MEMS vs FOG: the Ring laser gyroscope (RLG) has dominated the inertial navigation market since its first inception in 1963, recently its dominance has been challenged by improvements to Fibre Optic Gyroscope (FOG) technology. These technological improvements are slowly but surely eroding the RLG’s place in the inertial navigation market, pushing the aging technology to irrelevance.

There are several methods to determine heading in navigation when using an Attitude Heading Reference System (AHRS) or an Inertial Navigation System (INS). As such recommending an appropriate heading source should be based on typical application requirements. These are indicative but should be evaluated fully for individual applications.

Since its inception in the 1960s, the Kalman filter has been commonly used to this day for guidance and navigation applications. It has undergone many adjustments designed to improve upon the basic implementation, such as the extended and unscented Kalman filter. In recent years, however, a new approach to filtering based on artificial neural network (ANN) processing has made significant breakthroughs that have pushed the inertial navigation industry into a new era.

DFOG, short for Digital FOG or Digital Fiber Optic Gyroscope, is patent pending technology which has been developed over 25 years involving two research institutions. DFOG was created to meet the demand for smaller and more cost effective FOGs, while increasing reliability and accuracy. This technological breakthrough enables new opportunities for commercial and defense applications requiring always available, ultra-high accuracy, orientation and navigation.