System for measuring a magnetic field comprising a three-axis sensor for measuring a magnetic field that is able to move together with a carrier that disrupts the measurements, and associated method

• US 9,459,098 B2
• Filed: 05/14/2009
• Issued: 10/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Commissariat a L'Energie Atomique (AES Corporation), Movea
• Original Assignee: Commissariat a L'Energie Atomique (AES Corporation), Movea
• Inventors: El-Marfouq, Ismal, Grenet, Pierre, Cattin, Viviane
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, LAM S
• Application Number:
  US12/992,385
• Publication Number:
  US 20110153233A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,700 Days
• Field of Search: 702/57, 702/92, 333/56, 177/25.14
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 17/38 Testing, calibrating, or compensating of compasses
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/0206 Three-component magnetometers
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/025 Compensating stray fields G01R33/0017 takes precedence

Abstract

The magnetic field measurement system comprises a triaxial main sensor (1) for measuring magnetic field that can move jointly with a carrier element (2) capable of generating at least one additional magnetic field disturbing the measurements of said triaxial main sensor (1), said triaxial sensor (1) being adapted for providing orthonormal measurements for a reference magnetic field in the absence of magnetic disturbances due to said carrier element (2). The system comprises means of adjustment (5, 6, 7, 9, 4a, 4b) of said triaxial main sensor (1) comprising a removable additional sensor for magnetic field measurement, that can move jointly with said carrier element (2), and disposed outside said carrier element (2) away from the additional magnetic field or fields.

Claims

1. A triaxial magnetic field measurement system comprising a triaxial main sensor for measuring a magnetic field that can move jointly with a carrier element capable of generating at least one additional magnetic field disturbing measurements of said triaxial main sensor, said triaxial main sensor being configured to provide orthonormal measurements for a reference magnetic field in the absence of magnetic disturbances due to said carrier element, characterized in that the triaxial magnetic field measurement system further comprises means of adjustment of said triaxial main sensor comprising means for determining the reference magnetic field, said means for determining the reference magnetic field comprising a predetermined magnetic field generator or a removable additional sensor for magnetic field measurements, that can move jointly with said carrier element, and that is disposed outside said carrier element away from the additional magnetic field or fields.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means of adjustment of said triaxial main sensor comprises means for determining the additional magnetic field or fields generated by said carrier element on the basis of parameters comprising coefficients representative of a magnetic sensitivity of said carrier element, measurements performed by said triaxial main sensor, and temporal variations of said measurements.

3. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said means for determining the additional magnetic field or fields generated by said carrier element is a processing device configured to implement the following system of equations:

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means for determining the reference magnetic field comprises a removable additional sensor for magnetic field measurements, and said removable additional sensor is a triaxial additional sensor, whose axes are respectively parallel to the axes of the main triaxial sensor.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means for determining the reference magnetic field comprises a removable additional sensor for magnetic field measurements, and said removable additional sensor for magnetic field measurements is a scalar sensor.

6. The system as claimed in claim 4, wherein said means of adjustment of said triaxial main sensor comprises a calculating circuit configured to calculate the respective components of a remanent magnetic field by differences between averages of measurements performed simultaneously by the two triaxial sensors.

7. The system as claimed in claim 6, wherein said calculating circuit is further configured to calculate the vectors of said coefficients representative of the magnetic sensitivity of said carrier element by least squares estimation on the following system of equations:

8. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein said means of adjustment of said triaxial main sensor comprises an optimization device configured to optimize the following equality for a series of measurements performed simultaneously with said triaxial main sensor and said scalar sensor:

∥

Mes_scalar∥

=∥

B_measured−

B_disturbing∥

,

in which ∥

Mes_∥

scalar represents a norm of a measurement of the scalar sensor, and B_disturbing represents the disturbing additional magnetic field or fields generated by said carrier element.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a processing circuit configured to correct the measurements of said triaxial main sensor which are adapted for delivering the real magnetic field on the basis of the magnetic field measured by said triaxial main sensor and data provided by said means of adjustment of said triaxial main sensor by using the following system of equations:

10. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising circuit configured to provide predictive correction by consideration of disturbances of a predictive model, by gradient descent of the additional magnetic field or fields, by using the following relation:

11. A method of triaxial magnetic field measurement by a triaxial main sensor for measuring a magnetic field, in which the triaxial main sensor moves jointly with a carrier element that generates at least one additional magnetic field disturbing the measurements of said triaxial main sensor, said triaxial main sensor configured to provide orthonormal measurements for a reference magnetic field in the absence of magnetic disturbances due to said carrier element, characterized in that said triaxial main sensor is adjusted on a basis of a determination of the reference magnetic field, said determination of the reference magnetic field using a predetermined magnetic field generator or a removable additional sensor for magnetic field measurements, that can move jointly with said carrier element, and that is disposed outside said carrier element away from the additional magnetic field or fields.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the additional magnetic field or fields generated by said carrier element is or are determined on a basis of parameters comprising coefficients representative of a magnetic sensitivity of said carrier element, measurements performed by said triaxial main sensor, and temporal variations of said measurements.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein said determination of the additional magnetic field or fields generated by said carrier element uses the following system of equations: