Sensors

Module 2.2 - Magnetometer

Outline
1. Sensor Types
2. MEMS Accelerometers
3. MEMS Gyroscopes
4. MEMS Magnetometers
5. Accelerometer-based Euler angles estimation
6. Gyroscope-based Euler angles estimation
7. Accelerometer-Magnetometer-based Euler angles
estimation
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Overview
 Magnetometers (Ms) are measurement instruments used for two general purposes:
to measure the magnetization of a magnetic material like a ferromagnet, or to
measure the strength and, in some cases, direction of the magnetic field.

 Ms are widely used for measuring the Earth’s magnetic field and to detect magnetic
anomalies of various types in geophysical surveys.

 Applied in military forces as well, for example, for submarine detection, drone
navigation; in aeronautics for detection of the Earth’s and Moon’s magnetic fields
etc.

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Classification
All devices for measuring
Magnetic Field

Scalar Vector

All devices for measuring

Magnetic Field

Magnetometers Gaussmeters
(Measure low-fields (<1mT)) (Measure high-fields (>1mT))
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Types

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1.1
Magnetometers

Magnetic Field Fundamentals

Earth’s Magnetic Field
 Is generated by electric currents that are deep within the Earth and high above the
surface. All these currents contribute to the total geomagnetic field.

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 Magnetic Field Strength
 The strength of a magnetic field is the magnetic flux
density, B

 Measurement units of magnetic field flux (B) are Tesla and

Gauss:

1 Tesla (T) = 104 Gauss (G)

 Earth’s magnetic field is about 50 μT or 0.5-0.6 G.

 Changes in Earth’s magnetic field are typically of 5-100 nT

or 0.05-1 mG.

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Magnetic Poles
 Add about magnetic poles, magnetic North

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Magnetic Field Effects

 Magnetic field flux:

⃗ 𝑚
𝐻 =3 ( 𝑚 × 𝑎𝑟 ) 𝑎 𝑟 − 3
𝑟
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Hall Effect

 When a current carrying conductor is placed in a magnetic field, a voltage will be

generated perpendicular to the direction of the field and the flow of current.

 If the input current is held constant the Hall voltage will be directly proportional to
the strength of the magnetic field.

 The Hall voltage is a low level signal of the order of 20 - 30 mV in a magnetic field
of 1 G and requires amplification.
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1.2
Magnetometers

Models Overview
Scalar Magnetometers
 Measure the magnitude of the vector magnetic field

 The two most widely used scalar Ms are:

 The proton precession Ms
 Optically pumped Ms

 They have a limited magnetic measurement range: typically 20 mT to 100 mT. And
there are restrictions of orientation of the magnetic field vector relative to the
sensor element.

 Images of these Ms

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Vector Magnetometers
 Measure the component of the magnetic field in a particular direction, relative to
the spatial orientation of the device.
 The two most widely used vector Ms are:
 Images of these Ms
 The Induction Coil Ms
 The Fluxgate Ms
 The magnetoresistive Ms

 The Induction Coil (or Search Coil) M is one of the simplest magnetic field sensing
devices, is based on Faraday’s Law:

𝑑Φ
𝑒 (𝑡 )=−
𝑑𝑡

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Induction Coil Ms

a) Air core loop antenna;

b) b) Solenoid induction coil antenna with ferromagnetic core
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Induction Coil Ms
 With a coil having N turns wounded around a
magnetic material with magnetic permeability mr and
a flux f through it, the emf induced in the coil is:

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The Fluxgate Ms
 Has been and is a workhorse instruments both on Earth and in space. It is rugged,
reliable, physically small and requires very small power to operate.

a) Ring core
b) Fluxgate sensor, the excitation field is at right angles to the signal winding axis. This
configuration minimizes coupling between the excitation field and the signal winding
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The Fluxgate Ms Principle
 An external magnetic field H applied to a ferromagnetic core, induce a magnetic
flux in the core; B = μH (μ is the permeability of the material). For high H values the
material saturates, and the magnetic flux B cannot be further increased.

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The Fluxgate Ms Operation
 An

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Magnetoresistive Type
 The larger the magnetic field, the larger the arc radius. It forces electrons to take a
longer path. The resistance to their flow increases. A relationship between magnetic
field and current is established and therefore, the resistance of the device becomes
a measure of field.

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1.4
Magnetometers

Soft and Hard Iron Biases

Hard Iron Bias
 The larger the magnetic field, the larger the arc radius. It forces electrons to take a
longer path. The resistance to their flow increases. A relationship between magnetic
field and current is established and therefore, the resistance of the device becomes
a measure of field.

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Soft Iron Bias
 The larger the magnetic field, the larger the arc radius. It forces electrons to take a
longer path. The resistance to their flow increases. A relationship between magnetic
field and current is established and therefore, the resistance of the device becomes
a measure of field.

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1.3
Magnetometers

Applications – Heading Estimation

Inclination Angle

 The angle of the magnetic field H to the surface of the Earth is called the dip (or
inclination) angle

𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛=𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒( 𝐻 𝐸 , √ 𝐻 𝑋 +𝐻 𝑌 )
⃗ 2 2
𝐻 𝐸 = √ 𝐻 𝑋 +𝐻 𝑌 + 𝐻 𝑍
⃗ 2 2 2
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Declination Angle
 The magnetic North (the Earth’s
magnetic pole position) differs from
true, or geographic, North by about
11.5 deg.

 At different locations around the globe

magnetic North and true North can
differ by ±25 deg.

 This difference is called the declination

angle and can be determined from a
lookup tables based on the geographic
location;  Would be great to find Ethopian map
http://www.magnetic-declination.com/
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Magnetometer Readings
 M measures the magnetic field it’s applied to:

⃗
𝐵 =( 𝜇 𝑋 , 𝜇 𝑌 , 𝜇 𝑍 )

 There are the main CS that are used for magnetometer data:
 Geographical (XYZ);
 Geomagnetic (XYZ or HDZ)
 Compass-type (HDZ)

 Images of two CS

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Searching for Heading…
 The key to accurately finding a compass heading is a two step process:

1. Determine the Hx and Hy horizontal components of the Earth’s magnetic field;

2. Add or subtract the proper declination angle to correct for true North.

Good choice when compass is on a flat and level plane!

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1.4
Magnetometers

Applications – Measurements Filtering

Low-pass Filtering
 Magnetometer measurements are usually corrupted by noise; because the main
process (the rate of heading changes) is usually rather slow, low-pass filter can be
applied:

⃗
𝐵 𝐹𝐼𝐿𝑇 ( 𝑡 ) =𝛼 ∙ ⃗
𝐵𝑅𝐴𝑊 ( 𝑡 ) + ⃗
𝐵𝐹𝐼𝐿𝑇 ( 𝑡 − 1 ) ( 1 − 𝛼 )

 The lower the low-pass filter factor (), the larger the delay between input action
and output reaction.

 This will stop the needle from bouncing around, however it will add a little delay in
the movement.
 Add plot with raw
measurements and filtered
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1.4
Magnetometers

Applications – Tilt Compensation

Tilt Compensation
 Errors introduced by tilt angles can be quite
large depending on the amount of the Dip
angle.

 A typical method for correcting the compass

tilt is to use an inclinometer, or tilt sensor, to
determine the roll and pitch angles.

 MEMS accelerometer tilt sensor measures the

Earth’s gravitational field. The output of these
device is an electrical signal equivalent to the
angle of tilt.

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Tilt Compensation
 All three magnetic axes (X, Y, Z) should be used now so that the Earth’s field can be
fully rotated back to a horizontal orientation.

 Remove HMC2003

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1.5
Magnetometers

Applications – Hard and Soft Iron Biases Compensation

Main Idea
 The effects of ferrous metals (iron, nickel, steel, cobalt) will distort, or bend, the
Earth’s field which will alter the compass heading. But they can be accounted for and
removed from the magnetic readings.

No Interference Of M Hard Iron distortions Impact Soft Iron distortions Impact

Readings for 3600 Rotation In on M Readings for 3600 on M Readings for 3600
Level Plane Rotation In Level Plane Rotation In Level Plane

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Algorithm
 To compensate for the vehicle’s distortion, two scale factors Xsf and Ysf can be
determined to change the ellipsoid response to a circle.
 Offset values Xoff and Yoff can then be calculated to center the circle around the 0,0
origin.

Removing Soft Iron distortions in M Readings Removing Hard Iron distortions in M

Readings
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Results
 Note that before applying Hard iron biases compensation algorithm, Tilt compensation
should be done!

Before Compensation After Compensation 37

1.6
Magnetometers

Practical Tasks
Tasks description
1. Capture Magnetometer measurements which correspond to the 3600 rotation of the
device in level plane (log 1) and the same but with some tilt angles of the device
(log2); show the plots of Magnetometer vector components ;

2. Perform Low-pass filtering and depict raw and filtered measurements;

3. Calculate heading values without Tilt compensation and depict them as function
heading=f(t); perform Declination angle correction for heading values;

4. Calculate heading values with Tilt compensation and depict them as function
heading=f(t); perform Declination angle correction for heading values;

5. Calculate heading values with Tilt, Hard and Soft Iron Biases compensation and
depict them as function heading=f(t) as well as for all three test cases.

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Thank You for attention!