Portable magnetic sensing system for real-time, point-by-point detection, localization and classification of magnetic objects

Abstract

A portable magnetic anomaly sensing system includes a non-magnetic support structure defined by a rigid beam and a rigid frame coupled thereto. Triaxial magnetometer (TM) sensors are rigidly coupled to the frame with one TM sensor being positioned at each vertex of a cubic space. Each TM sensor is positioned such that all respective X,Y,Z magnetic sensing axes are mutually parallel to one another. A data acquisition system is mechanically coupled to the beam such that any magnetic elements of the data acquisition system do not adversely affect accuracy of the TM sensors. The data acquisition system samples the sensed magnetic field data from all TM sensors synchronously with a timing signal. A processor is mechanically coupled to the beam such that any magnetic elements of the processor do not adversely affect accuracy of the TM sensors. The processor applies a magnetic scalar triangulation and ranging (STAR) processing scheme to the digitized magnetic field data in order to determine a position vector and a magnetic moment vector. One or more output generation devices are used to generate a human-discernable output to the position vector and the magnetic moment vector.