Foot-mounted INS and selected geomagnetic information constraint for individual localization

A pedestrian positioning method aided by magnetic heading is proposed so as to investigate a pedestrian autonomous navigation and positioning method. This method mainly employs the information from an accelerator, gyroscope and Zero Velocity Update (ZUPT) based on gait detection. Besides, geomagnetic information is used to estimate the initial heading and to calibrate the headings during the walk. The result shows that the accuracy of estimated position is effectively improved by fusing the inertial and geomagnetic information. Additionally, this paper presents the cause of magnetic heading error and its solution. By rectangular path test and the figure “8” shape path test, the proposed algorithm is proved to be valid compared with traditional pedestrian positioning method. This method owns a wide engineering application value.