Low power in-situ AI Calibration of a 3 Axial Magnetic Sensor

TL;DR

This paper introduces a low-power AI-based calibration method for 3-axis magnetic sensors that enhances accuracy without external references, enabling quick in-situ magnetic surveys with reduced noise.

Contribution

It presents a novel AI calibration technique for magnetometers that handles offsets and non-orthogonality, optimized for rapid in-situ deployment without external references.

Findings

Reduced calibration noise from 10^4 nT to below 10 nT

Achieved variance lower than 1 nT in 360-degree rotation

Demonstrated effective calibration without external references

Abstract

Magnetic surveys are conventionally performed by scanning a domain with a portable scalar magnetic sensor. Unfortunately, scalar magnetometers are expensive, power consuming and bulky. In many applications, calibrated vector magnetometers can be used to perform magnetic surveys. In recent years algorithms based on artificial intelligence (AI) achieve state-of-the-art results in many modern applications. In this work we investigate an AI algorithm for the classical scalar calibration of magnetometers. A simple, low cost method for performing a magnetic survey is presented. The method utilizes a low power consumption sensor with an AI calibration procedure that improves the common calibration methods and suggests an alternative to the conventional technology and algorithms. The setup of the survey system is optimized for quick deployment in-situ right before performing the magnetic survey. We present a calibration method based on a procedure of rotating the sensor in the natural earth magnetic field for an optimal time period. This technique can deal with a constant field offset and non-orthogonality issues and does not require any external reference. The calibration is done by finding an estimator that yields the calibration parameters and produces the best geometric fit to the sensor readings. A comprehensive model considering the physical, algorithmic and hardware properties of the magnetometer of the survey system is presented. The geometric ellipsoid fitting approach is parametrically tested. The calibration procedure reduced the root-mean-squared noise from the order of 104 nT to less than 10 nT with variance lower than 1 nT in a complete 360 degrees rotation in the natural earth magnetic field.