An Innovative 9-Parameter Magnetic Calibration Method Using Local Magnetic Inclination and Calibrated Acceleration Value

In this paper, an innovative algorithm for Tri-Axial Magnetometers calibration based on the magnetic inclination is proposed. The proposed “Inclination based Calibration method” uses the fact that the angle between the local gravity and magnetic field is invariant hence overcoming the limitations of most existing in-field calibration methods which require nonlinear optimization. This calibration algorithm is formulated as the solution to a linear least square problem. A commonly used 9-parameter model and its associated 12-observation Icosahedron experimental scheme were developed to evaluate its applicability to calibrated Tri-Axial Magnetometers based on measured acceleration and magnetic data. The results show that the algorithm can provide effective calibration results for the magnetic field in both simulation and experiments. In addition, the influence of accelerometers data applied in this algorithm is investigated by simulation and experiment to demonstrate the importance of accelerometers data accuracy. The acceleration value after effective calibration is demonstrated to make an improvement in the estimation results.