Comparative Performance Analysis of AC Magnetic Positioning Algorithms With Realtime Implementation Environment

This study proposes an enhanced algorithm design and comparative performance analysis of the positioning system based on the concurrent AC magnetic fields. For this, a new approximated field representation model with respect to the circular magnetic coil is developed for achieving on-board algorithm implementation. In the existing researches, the magnetic positioning is usually implemented by the dipole model even though they employ circular coils. Despite the model simplicity, the dipole model suffers typically from the significant representation model deviation from actual magnetic measurement near the transmitter coil area. To overcome this, more complicated but computationally comparable formula is employed, which can reflect effectively the dimensional field distribution characteristics of the magnetic coil. This study also investigates a real-time implementation of the proposed method. Considering the computing performance of the microprocessor, the on-board algorithm is developed considering its calculation speed and memory usage. As a result, the real-time result achieved millimeters level difference compared with the post processing result using full computing power. In experimental validation, a reference optical positioning system providing a sub-millimeter accuracy is employed for evaluating the on-board real-time results during dynamic trajectory tests. The result presents an enhanced estimation error around full operational range compared with the other representation models, which specifically demonstrates centimeters level error in positioning and about 3 degree heading error within operation range.