Digital Magnetic Compass Integration with Stationary, Land-Based Electro-Optical Multi-Sensor Surveillance System

Abstract

Multi-sensor imaging systems using the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and digital magnetic compass (DMC) for geo-referencing have an important role and wide application in long-range surveillance systems. To achieve the required system heading accuracy, the specific magnetic compass calibration and compensation procedures, which highly depend on the application conditions, should be applied. The DMC compensation technique suitable for the operation environment is described and different technical solutions are studied. The application of the swinging procedure was shown as a good solution for DMC compensation in a given application. The selected DMC was built into a system to be experimentally evaluated, both under laboratory and field conditions. The implementation of the compensation procedure and magnetic sensor integration in systems is described. The heading accuracy measurement results show that DMC could be successfully integrated and used in long-range surveillance systems providing required geo-referencing data.

Keywords

• electro-optical surveillance system
• digital magnetic compass
• compass integration
• hard iron compensation
• soft iron compensation
• magnetic heading angle
• swinging method
• measurement accuracy