Laser gyro smart digital PLC acquisition control

A ring laser gyro path length control for controlling the position of at lest one mirror of a laser block which forms, at least in part, said ring laser gyro, said control comprising:

• a ring laser including a plurality of mirrors for establishing a pair of oppositely traveling laser beams about an optical closed-loop path, wherein at least a first mirror of said plurality of mirrors is coupled to a mirror transducer for controlling the position of said first mirror;
• a path length control circuit responsive to at least one of said laser beams for providing a transducer control signal operative for controlling the position of said first mirror to maintain the intensity of said one of said laser beams at a preselected condition;
• means for generating data representative of the position of said first mirror;
• means for storing data representative of the characteristic of said mirror position as a unction of the temperature of said ring laser, temperature sensing means for providing data representative of the temperature of said ring laser;
• and
• computer means for operating on said data representative of the position of said first mirror, said data representative of said temperature of said ring laser, and data characteristic of the desired relative position of said first mirror as a function of the gyro temperature, so as to affect said path length control circuit in a manner to cause the position of said first mirror to approximate said characteristic data at said ring laser temperature.