Magnetic Tracking of Wireless Capsule Endoscope in Mobile Setup Based on Differential Signals

差分定位算法，不用再考虑地磁场以及地磁场的变化，主要是将比较近的若干个传感器组成一组，假设它们上面的地磁场是一致的，然后磁场作差，理论上可消去地磁，最后优化“测量磁场差”和“理论磁场差”之间的差为0，求解磁体pose。就是用单一瞬态磁场读数之间的差值求解pose。这个idea非常巧妙！

在移动设备中的无线胶囊内窥镜的基于差分信号的磁追踪方法
Magnetic Tracking of Wireless Capsule Endoscope in Mobile Setup Based on Differential Signals [1]
Paper Link
Authors: Song, Shuang, et al.
2021, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement

0. 摘要 Abstract

为了提供体内物体的精确的位置和朝向信息，比如WCE，磁定位理论已经被广泛地研究。然而，当使用可穿戴传感器阵列时，由于地磁场，这些理论不能在动态场景中很好地工作。在这篇文章中，我们提供一个新型地方法用于追踪在一个移动装置中的无线胶囊，该方法基于来自相邻磁传感器的差分信号。与之前的被动磁定位框架相比，所提出的算法能够去除地磁的影响而不引入其他传感器或信号。结果是，所提出的理论能够用于可穿戴传感器阵列而不需要提前知晓地磁场的分布和传感器阵列的移动。更进一步，位置误差和相邻传感器之间的距离的关系已经被研究来提高追踪精度。最终，含有16个三轴磁传感器的传感器阵列被提出。静态和动态实验被进行，结果证明了所提出理论的有效性。
Magnetic localization methods have been widely studied to provide accurate position and orientation information of intra-body objects, such as wireless capsule endoscopes. However, these methods cannot work well in dynamic scenarios when using wearable sensor array due to the geomagnetic field. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for tracking wireless capsule in a mobile setup based on differential signals from adjacent magnetic sensors. Compared to the previous passive magnetic localization framework, the proposed algorithm can eliminate the interference of geomagnetic field without introducing other compensation sensors or signals. As a result, the proposed method can be used for wearable sensor array without knowing distribution of geomagnetic field and the movement of the sensor array in advance. Moreover, relationship between position error and distance of adjacent sensors has been studied to improve tracking accuracy. Finally, a sensor array with 16 three-axis magnetic sensors is developed. Both static and dynamic experiments have been carried out, whose results verified the effectiveness of the proposed method.

1. 介绍 Introduction

RF定位，三角测量，定位精度低

当传感器互相靠近的时候，来自这些传感器的地磁场的测量可以假设为一样的。基于这个假设，相邻的四个传感器被分入一个组。来自这四个传感器的差分信号被用来估计磁目标的位置和朝向。
When sensors are close to each other, measurements of the geomagnetic field from these sensors are assumed to be equal. Based on this assumption, adjacent four sensors have been divided into a cell. Differential signals from these four sensors are then used to estimate the position and orientation of the magnetic target.

2. 理论 Methods

B. 差分信号 Differential Signal

测量磁场主要包含理论磁场和地磁场噪音
The measured values are mainly composed of theoretical magnetic intensity and geomagnetic noise

对于阵列中的任意两个磁传感器，差分操作能被表示为：
For any two sensors of the sensor array, such as the i-th and j-th sensors, the differential operations can be as follows:

$${\mathbf{b}}_{im}-{\mathbf{b}}_{jm}={\mathbf{b}}_i-{\mathbf{b}}_j+{\mathbf{b}}_{ig}-{\mathbf{b}}_{jg}$$

如果两个传感器足够接近，那两个地磁场就可以认为一样，就可以抵消

b i