Magnetic detection techniques have been widely used in many fields, such as virtual reality, surgical robotics systems, and so on. A large number of methods have been developed to obtain the position of a ferromagnetic target. However, the angular rotation of the target relative to the sensor is rarely studied. In this paper, a new method for localization of moving object to determine both the position and rotation angle with three magnetic sensors is proposed. Trajectory localization estimation of three magnetic sensors, which are collinear and noncollinear, were obtained by the simulations, and experimental results demonstrated that the position and rotation angle of ferromagnetic target having roll, pitch or yaw in its movement could be calculated accurately and effectively with three noncollinear vector sensors.
Keywords: ferromagnetic target; magnetic detection techniques; rotation angle; the magnetic sensor array; trajectory localization estimation.