US 4,477,188 AGranted

Monolithic three axis ring laser gyroscope

AssigneeThe Singer Company

InventorsJohn C. Stiles, Bo H. G. Ljung

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Abstract

A monolithic ring laser gyroscope is formed by six mirrors mounted to the respective center of each face in a cube. Bores in the cube interconnect each of the mirrors. Three orthogonal planes are defined within the cube, each of which contains a laser cavity. Accordingly, three orthogonal beam paths exist, each responsive to rotational inputs about three orthogonal axes.

Claims3

Dependent claims

A monolithic ring laser gyroscope for detecting inertial rotation about first and second and third sensing axes disposed in guadrature and having a common intersection point, the gyroscope comprising:

a cube body having six faces with three axes respectively coaxial with said three sensing axes;
a plurality of mirrors with each mirror located at the center of each cube body face;
a plurality of bores formed internally of the body between each mirror and each of four adjacent mirrors thereby forming optical cavities therebetween containing lasing gas;
three mutually orthogonal planes passing through the mirrors, each plane passing through two of said sensing axes and including an optical cavity enclosing a four-sided closed beam path orthogonal to the other four-sided beam paths;
a diagonal passageway filled with lasing gas and located in the body and having a diagonal axis extending through the body of the cube and through the intersection point;
at least one cathode affixed to the body and extending outwardly from an end point of the diagonal passageway:
torsional spring means having a dither axis and being attached to the body and concentrically receiving the cathode for permitting dithering of the body about the dither axis;
a pair of anodes located in each beam path;
shortened passageways filled with lasing gas and connecting the diagonal passageway with each of the beam paths for communicating electrical energy from the cathode to the anodes;
and
beam combining means optically communicating with each beam path for measuring the beat frequency between counter-rotating beams in each path, wherein said diagonal axis is disposed close to a line extending through diagonally opposite corners of said cube for ease of manufacture of the diagonal passageway, and wherein each said shortened passageway has an opening into its respective four-sided beam path, said opening and its pair of beam path anodes being disposed so that the opening is midway between the pair of beam path anodes for forming a symmetrical flow path.

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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

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Abstract

a cube body having six faces with three axes respectively coaxial with said three sensing axes;
a plurality of mirrors with each mirror located at the center of each cube body face;
a plurality of bores formed internally of the body between each mirror and each of four adjacent mirrors thereby forming optical cavities therebetween containing lasing gas;
three mutually orthogonal planes passing through the mirrors, each plane passing through two of said sensing axes and including an optical cavity enclosing a four-sided closed beam path orthogonal to the other four-sided beam paths;
a diagonal passageway filled with lasing gas and located in the body and having a diagonal axis extending through the body of the cube and through the intersection point;
at least one cathode affixed to the body and extending outwardly from an end point of the diagonal passageway:
torsional spring means having a dither axis and being attached to the body and concentrically receiving the cathode for permitting dithering of the body about the dither axis;
a pair of anodes located in each beam path;
shortened passageways filled with lasing gas and connecting the diagonal passageway with each of the beam paths for communicating electrical energy from the cathode to the anodes;
and
beam combining means optically communicating with each beam path for measuring the beat frequency between counter-rotating beams in each path, wherein said diagonal axis is disposed close to a line extending through diagonally opposite corners of said cube for ease of manufacture of the diagonal passageway, and wherein each said shortened passageway has an opening into its respective four-sided beam path, said opening and its pair of beam path anodes being disposed so that the opening is midway between the pair of beam path anodes for forming a symmetrical flow path.

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