A novel laser Doppler velocimeter

The idea of using a reference-beam laser Doppler velocimeter (LDV) to measure the velocity of a vehicle for an inertial navigation system is proposed. In order to reduce the measurement error produced by the vehicle's jolt, a novel laser Doppler velocimeter (LDV) based on the Janus configuration is presented. The system mounted at the bottom of the vehicle is composed of two single reference-beam subsystems, one of the laser probes looks forward and the other looks backward. Each of the subsystems transmits a laser at 532 nm with the same inclination angle and detects its own Doppler frequency from the scattered light. The pitch angle of the vehicle is calculated by the two detected Doppler frequencies and the inclination angle, and then the measured velocity of the vehicle is compensated. The results of the theory analysis and experiments show that the vehicle's jolt affects conventional reference-beam LDV strongly. LDV with a Janus configuration is insensitive to the inclination angle, and its measurement accuracy is much better than that of a conventional reference-beam LDV. Comparing with the DZL-1 electronic speedometer, the measurement mean error is less than 0.9%, so it is suitable to offer the parameter of velocity for a vehicle self-contained inertial navigation system.