Inertial Sensor Technology Trends

This paper presents an overview of how inertial sensor technology is applied in current applications and how it is expected to be applied in near-and far-term applications. The ongoing trends in inertial sensor technology development are discussed, namely interferometric fiber-optic gyros, micro-mechanical gyros and accelerometers, and micro-optical sensors. Micromechanical sensors and improved fiber-optic gyros are expected to replace many of the current systems using ring laser gyroscopes or mechanical sensors. The successful introduction of the new technologies is primarily driven by cost and cost projections for systems using these new technologies are presented. Externally aiding the inertial navigation system (INS) with the global positioning system (GPS) has opened up the ability to navigate a wide variety of new large-volume applications, such as guided artillery shells. These new applications are driving the need for extremely low-cost, batch-producible sensors.