“Warfare and weapons have come a long way from a gunner bouncing around on top or in the back of a vehicle like an extra in “Kelly’s Heroes” – exposed to enemy fire and using his weapons largely for suppressing fire rather than a true tactical tool.”
Under that premise, Middletown-based KVH Industries released a white paper entitled “Meeting Critical Stabilization Needs for Remote Weapon Systems: The Case for KVH Fiber Optic Gyros” last month.
Although the FOGs have been around for a while – they were introduced in the first remote weapon systems in 2004 – KVH saw an opportunity to get the word out about how far the technology has advanced and its commercial possibilities.
Providence Business News spoke with Joseph “Jay” Napoli, vice president of fiber optic gyros and OEM sales for KVH Industries, and collaborating author on the white paper.
Napoli, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, joined KVH in 1999 as the director of FOG and OEM sales and assumed the role of vice president of the division in November 2008. Prior to joining KVH, Napoli worked for Allegheny Teledyne Inc., first as managing director for Teleyne Italia and later as vice president of European business development.
PBN: In layman’s terms, what are fiber optic gyros and what applications do they have?
NAPOLI: A fiber optic gyro (FOG) is a device that very accurately measures angular rotation. The FOG has no moving parts, and uses light traveling through a path of optical fiber to determine how much or how quickly something has rotated in a period of time. The FOG is therefore very quiet, does not inject any noise or error into what it is measuring, and can output a great deal of data in a very short period of time.
There are many applications for FOGs, both commercial and military, but perhaps the easiest one to visualize is stabilizing any sort of camera or optical equipment. If you have ever tried to videotape a sporting event with a hand-held camera, you know that it can be difficult to hold the camera steady while following the action appropriately. Let’s suppose you further complicate things by trying to videotape the action on the playing field from a moving vehicle. The result might not be as good as you would like because the camera would bounce and jitter as the vehicle moves. If we attach FOGs to the camera and feed the information they measure related to the vehicle movement into a counteracting servomechanism, then the camera would be held rock steady, and there would be no bounce, movement or jitter in the video.
Another example of a FOG application is the recoil of a gun or weapon system. When firing a weapon, there is movement from the gun recoil which means that the gun is no longer aimed exactly at the target. Again, with FOGs and a servomechanism, the gun can be held at and brought back to the aiming point or target even when being fired continuously.
FOGs can point, aim or stabilize any type of equipment they are attached to – whether it is a camera, a gun, an antenna or any other device – with a very high degree of accuracy.
However, stabilizing something is not the only application for FOGs. Since KVH FOGs are so accurate in measuring angular rotation, they can also be combined with other sensors such as accelerometers and GPS to provide precise positioning and navigation information.
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PBN: Why did KVH decide to release the white paper now? It looks like the FOGs have been in use for a while…
NAPOLI: It is true that FOGs have been around for quite some time, but they were initially too big, not accurate enough, or too expensive to be used in many applications. KVH released its white paper to demonstrate just how far the technology has advanced, and to provide commercial and military markets examples of where FOGs are used and what the potential benefits are in terms of improved accuracy and lower lifetime system costs.
PBN: In the white paper, KVH explains the military use of FOGs in remote weapons systems. But there are many non-military uses of FOGs.
NAPOLI: There are a large number of commercial systems that use FOGs. A few examples are:
- Rail or train track geometry measurement systems: a vehicle with FOGs travels the rails and the FOGs measure if the rails have deviated from their optimum position, which helps determine if track maintenance is required. Accurate measurement of the rails and appropriate maintenance is critical to avoid train derailments.
- Football fans are familiar with the blue line of scrimmage and yellow first down lines that are superimposed on the football field. KVH FOGs are used on the cameras to make sure that the line in stable and does not wander or jitter, resulting in a more favorable experience for TV viewers.
- Unmanned underwater vehicles for oil and gas exploration need to know exactly where they are pointed and oriented, even though GPS is unavailable at the depths they operate in regularly. KVH’s FOGs can keep track of an underwater vehicles movement so that the operator on the surface knows where the vehicle is located and how it is oriented.
- If you have ever used GPS in your car, you can appreciate how easy it is to navigate and get where you need to go, especially when you are not familiar with the area. KVH FOGs are used by several companies that actually drive throughout the world to “map” the streets and roads that are used in automotive GPS systems.
PBN: Does KVH have any competition in the FOG market? Who are they?
NAPOLI: There are several FOG manufacturers throughout the world, including Tamam and Al Cielo in Israel, Litef in Germany, Ixsea and Sagem in France, Fizoptika in Russia, and Honeywell and Northrop Grumman in the U.S.A. However, there are different types of FOGs, and different accuracy levels and costs associated with them. In terms of KVH’s FOG accuracy, target markets, and prices we do not actually compete with these other FOG manufacturers very often. Most of our competition comes from other types of gyroscope technologies, such as spinning mass and MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) gyros. Suffice it to say that accuracy comes at a price, and customers using less-than-FOG accuracy gyros have to decide on either staying with their relatively inaccurate gyros or upgrading to FOG technology.
PBN: In your opinion, what’s the most exciting aspect of the FOG technology?
NAPOLI: With respect to the technology of the KVH FOG itself, the fact that KVH makes its own optical fiber, and all of the fiber components that go into the FOG is very unique and very exciting. KVH does not have to depend on anyone else for fiber in order to manufacture FOGs, and we have a highly integrated vertical manufacturing process that we control to assure that every FOG we make is of the highest caliber and quality.
In terms of the applications using FOGs, I find the fact that KVH FOGs are helping to save lives in the military to be the most exciting aspect of FOG technology. Remote weapons systems work extremely well because FOGs are so accurate and affordable. Vehicles without remote weapons stations must have soldiers operate the weapon outside the vehicles, thus exposing them to improvised explosive devices and enemy fire. KVH’s FOGs in remote weapons systems enable the soldier to operate the entire system from inside the protection of the vehicle, while at the same time enabling greater firing accuracy.
