Automated Estimation of Magnetic Sensor Position and Orientation in Measurement Facilities

Inthepresentarticle,wepropose,presentandvalidatea concrete methodology for automating the calibration process ofthe magnetic field sensors in a measuring facility. The calibrationprocess involves the dc field measurements of a well-characterizedmagnetic source and the modeling of its signature with multipledipoles before the execution of the measurement campaign. Then,the signature of the calibration source is measured from variousorientations, producing different spatial patterns of the dipolemagnetic field. The measured dataset, along with the parameters ofthe source are employed by the calibration algorithm to optimizethe position and alignment of the field sensors. To evaluate theaccuracy levels of the developed calibration methodology, we usereal measurements generated by two different current-fed coilsfor low-range and larger-distance placement of the sensors. Inaddition, we outline the practical implementation of the calibrationprocess in two different facilities used for measurements and char-acterization, namely a multimagnetometer facility and a facilitythat performs unit rotation. The experimental results verify thecapability of our method to estimate the position and orientationof the sensors, achieving position accuracy levels below 5 mm anda maximum orientation deviation of 2 degrees.