fiber-optic gyroscope

fiber-optic gyroscope

[′fī·bər ¦äp·tik ′jī·rə‚skōp] (engineering) An instrument for measuring rotation rate, in which light from a laser or light-emitting diode is split into two beams which travel in opposite directions around a coil of optical fiber and recombine to generate interference fringes whose shift is a measure of the rotation rate of the coil. Also known as fiber gyro; laser/fiber-optics gyroscope.