Development and Prospects of Multi-Domain Geomagnetic Navigation and Positioning Technologies

To address the pressing demand for autonomous navigation in GNSS-denied environments, this paper systematically reviews the development status and future trends of multi-domain geomagnetic navigation and positioning technologies. First, from the perspectives of scalar and vector measurement systems, the technical characteristics of main-stream magnetometers, including optically pumped magnetometers, proton precession magnetometers, and fluxgate magnetometers, are comparatively analyzed, and the key parameters of several high-resolution global and regional geomagnetic field models are summarized. Then, geomagnetic navigation algorithms are classified into four categories, namely geomagnetic matching, geomagnetic filtering, bio-inspired navigation, and AI-assisted methods, and the core principles and technical features of each category are discussed in detail. On this basis, representative application scenarios in aviation, marine and underwater systems, and indoor environments are examined, with emphasis on their technical bottlenecks, representative experiments, and development trends. Finally, future directions are outlined from three aspects: high-precision magnetic data acquisition and high-resolution reference map construction, deep fusion of multi-source information and intelligent algorithm innovation, and engineering deployment and industrialization. This paper aims to provide theoretical references and technical support for the development of passive autonomous multi-domain navigation capabilities.

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Publication Details

Journal
Sensors
Published
2026-09-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/s26185970
Primary Topic
Inertial Sensor and Navigation
Type
article
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Development and Prospects of Multi-Domain Geomagnetic Navigation and Positioning Technologies

Fujiang Liu, L. Zhu, Shaofeng Bian, Bo Zhu et al.
Sensors
Inertial Sensor and Navigation
article

Development and Prospects of Multi-Domain Geomagnetic Navigation and Positioning Technologies

Fujiang Liu, L. Zhu, Shaofeng Bian, Bo Zhu, Bing Liu, Jineng Ouyang, Houpu Li, Lei Xu
article en

Abstract

To address the pressing demand for autonomous navigation in GNSS-denied environments, this paper systematically reviews the development status and future trends of multi-domain geomagnetic navigation and positioning technologies. First, from the perspectives of scalar and vector measurement systems, the technical characteristics of main-stream magnetometers, including optically pumped magnetometers, proton precession magnetometers, and fluxgate magnetometers, are comparatively analyzed, and the key parameters of several high-resolution global and regional geomagnetic field models are summarized. Then, geomagnetic navigation algorithms are classified into four categories, namely geomagnetic matching, geomagnetic filtering, bio-inspired navigation, and AI-assisted methods, and the core principles and technical features of each category are discussed in detail. On this basis, representative application scenarios in aviation, marine and underwater systems, and indoor environments are examined, with emphasis on their technical bottlenecks, representative experiments, and development trends. Finally, future directions are outlined from three aspects: high-precision magnetic data acquisition and high-resolution reference map construction, deep fusion of multi-source information and intelligent algorithm innovation, and engineering deployment and industrialization. This paper aims to provide theoretical references and technical support for the development of passive autonomous multi-domain navigation capabilities.

SensorsVol. 26(18)
United States Naval Academy (US), Naval University of Engineering (CN), China University of Geosciences (CN), Zhoushan Hospital (CN), Tianjin Academy of Environmental Sciences (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 7%
Inertial Sensor and Navigation
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