A fiber optic gyroscope is an instrument that can accurately determine the orientation of a moving object and belongs to a type of inertial navigation instrument. It can provide high-precision, low-latency angular velocity data and can very accurately detect the rotation of bearings. It has advantages such as high accuracy, compact structure, and strong anti-interference ability, and can be used in fields such as aviation, aerospace, machinery, marine, and military. I. The market demand for fiber optic gyroscopes has broad space There are various types of fiber optic gyroscopes. According to different working principles, they can be divided into resonant fiber optic gyroscopes (I-FOG), interferometric fiber optic gyroscopes (R-FOG), stimulated Brillouin scattering fiber optic gyroscopes (B-FOG), etc.; according to different structures, they can be divided into single-axis and multi-axis fiber optic gyroscopes; according to different electrical signal processing methods, they can be divided into open-loop and closed-loop fiber optic gyroscopes. Compared with traditional mechanical gyroscopes, fiber optic gyroscopes have the characteristics of strong impact resistance, short start-up time, long service life, stable output signals, wide dynamic range, simple structure, small size, and light weight; compared with laser gyroscopes, they have the characteristics of low cost, small size, light weight, high reliability, excellent manufacturability, and high detection sensitivity. With the continuous prominence of the advantages of fiber optic gyroscopes, their application fields are constantly expanding, and they have been widely used in military and civilian fields. In the military field, fiber optic gyroscopes are mainly used in positioning, orientation, and navigation scenarios of military equipment such as tanks, submarines, and armored vehicles, playing a role in ensuring the normal operation of functions such as automatic navigation and precision guidance of weapons. At present, fiber optic gyroscopes have become the mainstream sensors in the domestic military navigation equipment market; in the civilian field, fiber optic gyroscopes are mainly used in high-end UAV flight control, rail transit equipment vibration sensing, aviation mobile mapping, driverless vehicle navigation control, oil and mineral exploration and other scenarios, and their market penetration rate is constantly increasing. At present, China's fiber optic gyroscope market is in the process of accelerating the transformation from the military field to the civilian field. In this context, the application scenarios of fiber optic gyroscopes are constantly expanding, and the industry has great development potential. According to the "2023-2027 China Fiber Optic Gyroscope Industry Market Monitoring and Future Development Prospect Research Report", the demand scale of China's fiber optic gyroscopes reached 5.24 billion yuan in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 12.7%. II. Major breakthroughs in fiber optic gyroscope technology Recently, China has made a major breakthrough in fiber optic gyroscope technology, successfully developing a silicon-based photonic integrated chip fiber optic gyroscope. This will greatly reduce the manufacturing cost of China's precision-guided weapons and improve the strike accuracy of missiles. On February 28, the research team led by Mao Yuzheng, a senior engineer from Xi'an Flight Automatic Control Research Institute of Aviation Industry Corporation of China, published an academic paper titled "Silicon-based Photonic Integrated Chip Fiber Optic Gyro" in "Journal of Chinese Inertial Technology". Under the current domestic fully independent and controllable deep ultraviolet lithography machine technology, a silicon-based photonic integrated chip fiber optic gyro design scheme with relatively simple process implementation and rapid engineering can be processed and produced. This scheme can significantly reduce production costs and make the fiber optic gyroscope into a chip, which will greatly improve the production efficiency of fiber optic gyroscopes and significantly reduce production costs. The breakthrough of this technology is of great significance to China. It will get rid of the shortcomings of traditional mechanical and electronic gyroscopes such as complex design, large volume, poor guidance accuracy, and weak anti-interference ability. Under the situation of strict technical blockade by Western developed countries against China, independently and controllably producing advanced silicon-based photonic integrated chip fiber optic gyroscopes will greatly reduce the production cost of China's precision-guided weapons. It is believed that after China masters this technology, precision-guided weapons will soon become "affordable like cabbages". At the same time, in addition to being applied in military weapon technology, this fiber optic gyroscope technology also has a very broad application space in the civilian field. It will bring technological improvements to China's civil aviation, as well as various fields such as automatic driving and intelligent robots, and occupy a favorable position in international competition. III. Basic structure of fiber optic gyroscope The basic structure of a fiber optic gyroscope consists of three parts: light source, optical sensor, and gyro mechanism. The light source is the core part of the fiber optic gyroscope, used to emit light beams. It can be a semiconductor laser, infrared laser, visible light laser, etc., and can provide light with sufficient intensity to realize the rotation of the gyroscope. The optical sensor is a sensor used to detect light reflection and collect data. According to the intensity of light reflection, it can realize the automatic adjustment and real-time monitoring of the gyroscope, which can include receivers, photodiodes, photoresistors, etc. The gyro mechanism is the most important part of the fiber optic gyroscope, used to realize the control of the gyroscope's rotation by light reflection. It is usually a mechanism that can adjust the rotation direction and angular velocity, which can be composed of motors, servos, stepper motors, etc. IV. Working principle of fiber optic gyroscope The working principle of the fiber optic gyroscope essentially uses optical principles to detect angular velocity. It winds the optical fiber into a coil and fixes it on a rotating carrier. When the carrier rotates, the optical fiber will rotate around the coil, thus forming the fiber optic gyroscope effect. The working principle of the fiber optic gyroscope is that when the carrier rotates, the optical fiber will generate stress due to rotation around the coil, which will cause changes inside the optical fiber, thereby changing the refractive index of the optical fiber. When the refractive index changes, an elastic deformation phenomenon will occur inside the optical fiber, thus forming a special electromagnetic effect and generating an electrical signal. According to the magnitude of this electrical signal, the angular velocity of the carrier can be determined. V. Future development and application of fiber optic gyroscopes The future development of fiber optic gyroscopes will be very promising. With the development of technology, fiber optic gyroscopes will become more powerful. In the future, it will be used in more applications, including: 1. Intelligent robots: Fiber optic gyroscopes can help robots move more accurately and collect environmental information more quickly. This will enable robots to perform more complex tasks more quickly, thereby better serving humans. 2. Autonomous driving: Fiber optic gyroscopes can realize autonomous driving technology. They can more accurately record the position of the vehicle and accurately complete the path planning of the vehicle. It can help vehicles execute paths more accurately, thereby reducing the possibility of accidents. 3. Aviation and aerospace: Fiber optic gyroscopes can also be used in the aerospace field, helping spacecraft to complete positioning and navigation more accurately. It can help aircraft control the flight path more precisely, thereby maximizing flight safety. In short, with the development of technology, the future development prospect of fiber optic gyroscopes is very bright. It will provide humans with more accurate and faster services and improve people's quality of life. Article sources: New Think Tank Network, Huaqiang Electronics Network, Changsuo Yiyan