{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,2]],"date-time":"2026-05-02T08:23:48Z","timestamp":1777710228152,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2016,3,9]],"date-time":"2016-03-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1457481600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Micromachines"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Magnetic-Inertial Measurement Units (MIMUs) based on microelectromechanical (MEMS) technologies are widespread in contexts such as human motion tracking. Although they present several advantages (lightweight, size, cost), their orientation estimation accuracy might be poor. Indoor magnetic disturbances represent one of the limiting factors for their accuracy, and, therefore, a variety of work was done to characterize and compensate them. In this paper, the main compensation strategies included within Kalman-based orientation estimators are surveyed and classified according to which degrees of freedom are affected by the magnetic data and to the magnetic disturbance rejection methods implemented. By selecting a representative method from each category, four algorithms were obtained and compared in two different magnetic environments: (1) small workspace with an active magnetic source; (2) large workspace without active magnetic sources. A wrist-worn MIMU was used to acquire data from a healthy subject, whereas a stereophotogrammetric system was adopted to obtain ground-truth data. The results suggested that the model-based approaches represent the best compromise between the two testbeds. This is particularly true when the magnetic data are prevented to affect the estimation of the angles with respect to the vertical direction.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/mi7030043","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2016,3,9]],"date-time":"2016-03-09T10:38:02Z","timestamp":1457519882000},"page":"43","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":59,"title":["Dealing with Magnetic Disturbances in Human Motion Capture: A Survey of Techniques"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Gabriele","family":"Ligorio","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant\u2019Anna, Piazza Martiri della Libert\u00e0 33, Pisa 56125, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Angelo","family":"Sabatini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant\u2019Anna, Piazza Martiri della Libert\u00e0 33, Pisa 56125, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,3,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"62","DOI":"10.1126\/science.176.4030.62","article-title":"Magnetic compass of European robins","volume":"176","author":"Wiltschko","year":"1972","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"364","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1064557","article-title":"Regional magnetic fields as navigational markers for sea turtles","volume":"294","author":"Lohmann","year":"2001","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"27","DOI":"10.1038\/421027a","article-title":"Animal behaviour: The lobster navigators","volume":"421","author":"Alerstam","year":"2003","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"367","DOI":"10.2307\/3102323","article-title":"Mediterranean contributions to the medieval Mariner\u2019s Compass","volume":"14","author":"Kreutz","year":"1973","journal-title":"Technol. Cult."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Needham, J., Wang, L., and Lu, G.D. (1963). Science and Civilisation in China, Cambridge University Press."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"Caruso, M.J. (2000, January 13\u201316). Applications of magnetic sensors for low cost compass systems. Proceeding of IEEE Position Location and Navigation Symposium, San Diego, CA, USA."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"26","DOI":"10.1109\/MRA.2014.2322295","article-title":"Vision-controlled micro flying robots: from system design to autonomous navigation and mapping in GPS-denied environments","volume":"21","author":"Scaramuzza","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Mag."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.1109\/MAES.2005.1514768","article-title":"GPS\/INS uses low-cost MEMS IMU","volume":"20","author":"Brown","year":"2005","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Aerosp. Electron. Syst."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ligorio, G., and Sabatini, A.M. (2015, January 14\u201316). A linear kalman filtering-based approach for 3D orientation estimation from magnetic\/inertial sensors. Proceeding of IEEE Multisensor Fusion and Integration for Intelligent Systems, San Diego, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/MFI.2015.7295749"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1216","DOI":"10.1109\/TRO.2006.886270","article-title":"Design, implementation, and experimental results of a quaternion-based Kalman Filter for human body motion tracking","volume":"22","author":"Yun","year":"2006","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Robot."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"78","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jbiomech.2005.11.011","article-title":"Ambulatory measurement of arm orientation","volume":"40","author":"Luinge","year":"2007","journal-title":"J. Biomech."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"24","DOI":"10.1109\/MCG.2002.1046626","article-title":"Motion tracking: no silver bullet, but a respectable arsenal","volume":"22","author":"Welch","year":"2002","journal-title":"IEEE Comput. Graph. Appl."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"18625","DOI":"10.3390\/s141018625","article-title":"Estimating orientation using magnetic and inertial sensors and different sensor fusion approaches: Accuracy assessment in manual and locomotion tasks","volume":"14","author":"Bergamini","year":"2014","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"23983","DOI":"10.3390\/s150923983","article-title":"How angular velocity features and different gyroscope noise types interact and determine orientation estimation accuracy","volume":"15","author":"Pasciuto","year":"2015","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2033","DOI":"10.1109\/TBME.2015.2411431","article-title":"A novel kalman filter for human motion tracking with an inertial-based dynamic inclinometer","volume":"62","author":"Ligorio","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2262","DOI":"10.1109\/TIM.2012.2187245","article-title":"Estimation of attitude and external acceleration using inertial sensor measurement during various dynamic conditions","volume":"61","author":"Lee","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1489","DOI":"10.3390\/s110201489","article-title":"Estimating three-dimensional orientation of human body parts by inertial\/magnetic sensing","volume":"11","author":"Sabatini","year":"2011","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"National Center for Environmental Information, Available online: http:\/\/ngdc.noaa.gov\/."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9182","DOI":"10.3390\/s111009182","article-title":"Kalman-filter-based orientation determination using inertial\/magnetic sensors: Observability analysis and performance evaluation","volume":"11","author":"Sabatini","year":"2011","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"76","DOI":"10.1109\/MRA.2007.901320","article-title":"An investigation of the effects of magnetic variations on inertial magnetic orientation sensors","volume":"14","author":"Bachmann","year":"2007","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Mag."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"535","DOI":"10.1016\/j.gaitpost.2008.12.004","article-title":"Magnetic distortion in motion labs, implications for validating inertial magnetic sensors","volume":"29","author":"Veegera","year":"2009","journal-title":"Gait Posture"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Angermann, M., Frassl, M., Doniec, M., Julian, B.J., and Robertson, P. (2012, January 13\u201315). Characterization of the indoor magnetic field for applications in localization and mapping. Proceeding of Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation, Sydney, Australia.","DOI":"10.1109\/IPIN.2012.6418864"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3883","DOI":"10.1109\/TIM.2011.2147690","article-title":"Magnetic maps for indoor navigation","volume":"60","author":"Gozick","year":"2011","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Frassl, M., Angermann, M., Lichtenstern, M., Robertson, P., Julian, B.J., and Doniec, M. (2013, January 3\u20137). Magnetic maps of indoor environments for precise localization of legged and non-legged locomotion. Proceeding of Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Tokyo, Japan.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2013.6696459"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ligorio, G., and Sabatini, A.M. (2016, January 20). A particle filter for 2D indoor localization relying on magnetic disturbances and magnetic-inertial measurement units. Proceeding of IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium, 2015, Catania, Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/SAS.2016.7479630"},{"key":"ref_26","first-page":"439","article-title":"A survey of attitude representations","volume":"9","author":"Shuster","year":"1993","journal-title":"Navigation"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"409","DOI":"10.1137\/1007077","article-title":"A least squares estimate of satellite attitude","volume":"7","author":"Wahba","year":"1965","journal-title":"SIAM Rev."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"70","DOI":"10.2514\/3.19717","article-title":"Three-axis attitude determination from vector observations","volume":"4","author":"Shuster","year":"1981","journal-title":"J. Guid. Control Dyn."},{"key":"ref_29","first-page":"245","article-title":"Attitude determination using vector observations and the singular value decomposition","volume":"36","author":"Markley","year":"1988","journal-title":"J. Astronaut. Sci."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"638","DOI":"10.1109\/TIM.2007.911646","article-title":"A simplified quaternion-based algorithm for orientation estimation from earth gravity and magnetic field measurements","volume":"57","author":"Yun","year":"2008","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas."},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Bar-Shalom, Y., Li, X.R., and Kirubarajan, T. (2004). Estimation with Applications to Tracking and Navigation: Theory Algorithms and Software, John Wiley & Sons."},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"Brown, R.G., and Hwang, P.Y. (1997). Introduction to Random Signals and Applied Kalman Filtering: With MATLAB Exercises and Solutions, John Wiley & Sons."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1346","DOI":"10.1109\/TBME.2006.875664","article-title":"Quaternion-based extended Kalman filter for determining orientation by inertial and magnetic sensing","volume":"53","author":"Sabatini","year":"2006","journal-title":"IEEE Biomed. Eng. Trans."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"174","DOI":"10.1109\/TAES.2006.1603413","article-title":"Novel quaternion Kalman filter","volume":"42","author":"Choukroun","year":"2006","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Aerosp. Electron. Syst."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1196","DOI":"10.1109\/TRO.2009.2017146","article-title":"Minimum-order kalman filter with vector selector for accurate estimation of human body orientation","volume":"25","author":"Lee","year":"2009","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Robot."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3296","DOI":"10.1109\/TIM.2010.2047157","article-title":"Orientation estimation using a quaternion-based indirect Kalman filter with adaptive estimation of external acceleration","volume":"59","author":"Suh","year":"2010","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1786","DOI":"10.1109\/TIM.2011.2181910","article-title":"Quaternion-based indirect kalman filter discarding pitch and roll information contained in magnetic sensors","volume":"61","author":"Suh","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"547","DOI":"10.1177\/0278364907079272","article-title":"Development of a tiny orientation estimation device to operate under motion and magnetic disturbance","volume":"26","author":"Harada","year":"2007","journal-title":"Int. J. Rob. Res."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"395","DOI":"10.1109\/TNSRE.2005.847353","article-title":"Compensation of magnetic disturbances improves inertial and magnetic sensing of human body segment orientation","volume":"13","author":"Roetenberg","year":"2005","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Neural. Syst. Rehabil. Eng."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8491","DOI":"10.3390\/s120708491","article-title":"Variable-state-dimension kalman-based filter for orientation determination using inertial and magnetic sensors","volume":"12","author":"Sabatini","year":"2012","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2297","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jbiomech.2012.06.009","article-title":"An effortless procedure to align the local frame of an inertial measurement unit to the local frame of another motion capture system","volume":"45","author":"Chardonnens","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Biomech."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"153","DOI":"10.3390\/s16020153","article-title":"Assessing the performance of sensor fusion methods: Application to magnetic-inertial-based human body tracking","volume":"16","author":"Ligorio","year":"2016","journal-title":"Sensors"}],"container-title":["Micromachines"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-666X\/7\/3\/43\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T19:20:27Z","timestamp":1760210427000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-666X\/7\/3\/43"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2016,3,9]]},"references-count":42,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,3]]}},"alternative-id":["mi7030043"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mi7030043","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-666X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-666X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2016,3,9]]}}}