Compact near-navigation-grade IFOG inertial measurement unit IMU400

At present time interferometric fiber-optic gyroscopes (IFOG, FOG) are widely used in inertial navigation systems (INS), and in wide range of applications have replaced its well-established main competitor ring laser gyroscopes (RLG). Recently, in order to cover the mass-market applications spectrum requiring low-cost and compact inertial sensor yet as much precise as it can be, RPC Optolink has launched new IFOG-based product: ultra-compact navigation-grade inertial measurement unit IMU400, its SWaP properties are: 80×95×62 mm, 0.7 kg, 0.5 l, ≤7 W. The aim of the current work was the production of IMU400 devices batches first, and then estimation of IMU 2019–2020 batches performance with direct approach and also with strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS) simulation methods, which is indirect way of performance observation, by its sense. Main IMU400 Gyro (FOG) and Accelerometer (ACC) parameters are: Angle Random Walk (ARW) = 0.007 °/√hour, Bias Instability (BI) = 0.01°/h; Velocity Random Walk (VRW) = 40μg/√Hz, BI = 6μg. SINS performance (best): heading 0.2°×sec(lat) (1σ, 10 min alignment time).