Simulation of an Interferometric Fiber Optic Gyroscope Applied to a Rocket Model

In this work, a navigation and control algorithm of a microsatellite launch vehicle was simulated together with noise models representing real gyroscopes. Three gyroscope noise models were studied and validated by calculating the Allan variance. Then, the trajectory was simulated to compare two types of gyroscope, one interferometric optic fiber gyroscope and one micro-electro-mechanical system gyroscope. The difference between the reference trajectory and the trajectory calculated using an ideal gyroscope is 0.20 km (? 1% error). The difference between the reference trajectory and the trajectory with the IFOG is 4.66 km (? 16% error). The difference between the reference trajectory and the trajectory with the MEMS is 5.92 km (? 20% error). As for the final attitude, it showed a negligible error with both types of gyroscopes. The results showed that the navigation and control algorithm used was able to correctly stabilize the vehicle?s attitude. However, it still requires improvements to follow the desired trajectory and not just the attitude.