Magnetic Field Aided Vehicle Tracking

W.F. Storms, J.F. Raquet

Abstract:	This paper investigates the possibility of using magnetic field variation to navigate in an indoor environment, where satellite signals would not be available and where magnetic anomalies are known to exist. The approach used is amultibeam terrain navigation algorithm adapted to use magnetic field intensity from a three-axis magnetometer. A previous outdoor effort used a similar approach, but combines the three magnetic measurements to look at the total magnitude of the magnetic field at a specific point in space. The new method described uses three-axis magnetometer measurements, which provides a more unique position solution than using the total magnitude. The position measurement is then incorporated with an inertial navigation systems position estimate using a Kalman filter. The magnetic aided position algorithm was tested in both a vehicle positioning algorithm (single vehicle) and a vehicle tracking algorithm (two vehicles in a lead/trail configuration). Sub-meter level navigation accuracies are shown for both of these cases using real magnetic field data in a hallway at the Air Force Institute of Technology.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 22nd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2009) September 22 - 25, 2009 Savannah International Convention Center Savannah, GA
Pages:	1767 - 1774
Cite this article:	Storms, W.F., Raquet, J.F., "Magnetic Field Aided Vehicle Tracking," Proceedings of the 22nd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2009), Savannah, GA, September 2009, pp. 1767-1774.
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