A rapid and low-cost north-finder design with error compensation

This paper presents a rapid and low-cost north-finder with error compensation (EC_North-Finder). An electronic compass is adopted as a core measuring unit and the steering mechanism of the instrument probe is adjusted through the translocation motor. Aiming at the influence of interference factors, a compensation algorithm which is based on the ellipse hypothesis is used in the calibration of electronic compass. Controlled by single chip microcomputer, the system could collect the location information; operate the translocation motor automatically and intelligently. In addition, the orientation data can also be processed and stored. The experiments results show that the precision of orientation data can be less than 0.8°.