Calibration of Strapdown Magnetometers in Magnetic Field Domain
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 19, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper presents an algorithm for calibrating strapdown magnetometers in the magnetic field domain. In contrast to the traditional method of compass swinging, which computes a series of heading correction parameters and thus is limited to use with two-axis systems, this algorithm estimates magnetometer output errors directly. Therefore, this new algorithm can be used to calibrate a full three-axis magnetometer triad. The calibration algorithm uses an iterated, batch least-squares estimator that is initialized using a two-step nonlinear estimator. The algorithm is simulated to validate convergence characteristics and further validated on experimental data collected using a magnetometer triad. It is shown that the postcalibration residuals are small and result in a system with heading errors on the order of .
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Acknowledgments
The writers wish to acknowledge the FAA Satellite Navigation Product Team and the Office of Technology and Licensing at Stanford University for sponsoring the research reported in this paper.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 19 • Issue 2 • April 2006
Pages: 87 - 102
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 2, 2004
Accepted: Mar 22, 2005
Published online: Apr 1, 2006
Published in print: Apr 2006
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