A Tightly Coupled Magnetic-Inertial SLAM System for Field Robots

Abstract

Field robots operating in mines, tunnels, and disaster areas require reliable localization despite GNSS denial and degraded camera and LiDAR measurements caused by dust, smoke, or poor illumination. Missions involving both ground and aerial robots further motivate complementary sensing modalities that do not depend on visibility, preinstalled infrastructure, or wheel contact. This letter presents MISLAM, a tightly coupled magnetic-inertial simultaneous localization and mapping system using an IMU and a nine-magnetometer array, without relying on external odometry or platform-specific motion assumptions. The system combines the inertial navigation model with local polynomial magnetic-field models for short-term motion estimation and a global Gaussian process model for drift correction using an error-state Kalman filter. Offline evaluation on three indoor datasets collected with a handheld rig shows reductions in total endpoint closure error of 45.7% - 78.0% relative to magnetic-inertial odometry. Under poor illumination, MISLAM maintains tracking after visual-inertial odometry fails, achieving a horizontal closure error of 0.332 m, although vertical drift remains a limitation. These results support magnetic-inertial SLAM as a complementary localization modality for robotic sensor suites operating under degraded visual conditions.