Ultra-compact navigation-grade 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 pilot IMU400 devices batch and the estimation of the performance of IMU with direct approach and also with strapdown inertial navigation systems (SINS) simulation methods, which by sense is indirect way of performance observation. Main IMU400 Gyro and Accelerometer parameters are: Angle Random Walk (ARW) = 0.007 °/√hour, Bias Instability (BI) = 0.01°/h; Velocity Random Walk (VRW) = 40µg/√Hz, BI = 6µg. SINS expected performance (max): heading 0.2°×sec(lat) (1σ, 10 min align time).