Determination of balance degree of spinning gyro disk by using optical feedback interferometry

We investigate the application of optical feedback interferometry (OFI) for balance adjustments of rotating mechanical gyroscopes that are used in many areas such as aeronautics industry. We compare our results with the industrial balancing machine which measures the amount and position degree of horizontally rotating gyroscope disk. Measurement results show that OFI can be used as an alternative for balance checking. Optical feedback interferometry is based on the mixing of laser light in the cavity with the portion of light which is reflected back to the cavity. Self-mixing interferometric effect occurring in the cavity carries the information about the object movement with high precision such as fluctuations from the ideal value. In this work, we report that OFI offers promising results for measuring unbalance of high precision spinning gyroscopes or rotors used in industry.