A Real-Time Magnetic Dipole Localization Method Based on Cube Magnetometer Array

Magnetic dipole localization methods have a wide application range. Resolving equations of magnetic gradient tensor is a classical method to obtain the direction of the relative position vector, but the real solution hides in four possible solutions. The Scalar Triangulation and Ranging (STAR) method is also effective but is less accurate than the real solution of tensor equations. To solve the two problems, we proposed a novel direction determination approach by combining the advantages of the two methods. Based on the cube tensor measurement array from the STAR method, a novel way to calculate the distance between the dipole and the sensor array is proposed. Then, a novel real-time magnetic dipole localization method is obtained. Results of simulation experiments indicate that our method raises the successful localization area by 43% compared with the traditional method, and the baseline length of the sensor array dominates the performance of our method.