'New technology' magnetic attitude sensors in autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) applications

Some recent improvements in fluxgate magnetometers are described. A fluxgate compass can be made into an attitude sensor providing accurate pitch and roll outputs by the addition of coils surrounding a triaxial arrangement of gimbaled fluxgate magnetometer elements. Deviational errors due to fixed permanent and soft iron sources within vehicles and submersibles with ferrous hulls can now be precisely and autonomously corrected without need for external references or surfacing. With modeling of the geomagnetic sphere and temporal changes of magnetic declination, magnetic heading can be accurate enough to satisfy most submersible navigation requirements without the need for a gyrocompass.<
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