Purpose The differential magnetic gradient tensor system is usually constructed from the three-axis magnetic sensor array. While the effects of measurement error, sensor performance and baseline distance on localization performance of such systems have been widely reported, the research about the effect of spatial design of sensor array is less presented. This paper aims to provide a spatial design method of sensor array and corresponding optimization strategy to localization based on magnetic tensor gradient to get the optimum design of the sensor array. Based on the results of simulation, magnetic localization systems constructed from the proposed array and the traditional array have been built to carry out a localization experiment. The results of experiment have verified the effectiveness of magnetic localization based on the proposed array. Design/methodology/approach The authors focus on the localization of the magnetic target based on magnetic gradient by using three-axis magnetic sensor array and combine a design method with corresponding optimization strategy to get the optimum design of the sensor array. Findings This paper provides an array design and optimization method for magnetic target localization based on magnetic gradient to improve the localization performance. Originality/value In this paper, the authors focus on the magnetic localization based on magnetic gradient by using three-axis magnetic sensors and study the effect of the spatial design of sensor array on localization performance.

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