Patent ID: 7777889

Claim:
A computer-implementable method of reducing bias instability in a fiber optic gyroscope, the method comprising the steps of: receiving with a computer a first data set enabling the computer to generate a model of the gyroscope, including a light source, a photodetector, and a plurality of optical components and fiber sections coupling the light source to the photodetector, and a light signal to be propagated from the light source to the photodetector, the light signal having an associated wavelength spectrum; for each said wavelength of the spectrum, calculating the relative lightwave intensity reaching the photodetector; determining, from the calculated relative lightwave intensities, a signal-wave intensity and a spurious-wave intensity; determining, from the signal-wave intensity, a scale factor; integrating the spurious-wave intensity over the wavelength spectrum of the light source to obtain a total spurious-wave intensity; determining a rate bias error based on the total spurious-wave intensity and the scale factor; and displaying the rate bias error.