Closed-Form Pose Estimation of Endoluminal Medical Devices via Gradiometer-Based Electromagnetic Localization System

Abstract

Embedded magnetic tracking holds highly attractive prospects for remote navigation of endoluminal medical devices. However, existing six-degree-of-freedom pose recovery approaches often require pre-calibrated workspace field maps or iterative nonlinear optimization. This letter presents a Gradiometer-Based Electromagnetic Localization System (GELS), a closed-form tracking framework that uses a compact magnetometer array as an embedded quasi-gradiometer to estimate local magnetic fields and gradient tensors. These quantities are mapped by the Euler homogeneous relation to displacements between source and array, from which multi-source Procrustes registration recovers the array orientation and position using at least three non-collinear sources. The algorithm requires known source positions and array geometry, but no pre-calibrated workspace field maps, initial pose guesses, or calibrated excitation-source moments. The recovered pose also enables a proof-of-concept sub-level dipole localization task by serving as a mobile magnetic reference frame. Benchtop experiments across sensor-array configurations and excitation modes demonstrate sequence-averaged position errors of \SI{10.80}{\milli\meter}--\SI{15.57}{\milli\meter}, a fastest update rate of \SI{14.49}{\hertz}, and a median solver runtime of \SI{172.00}{\micro\second}. A perturbation-based error propagation analysis further identifies inter-sensor inconsistency and dipole-model mismatch as the dominant accuracy limits, thereby informing future sensor array and magnetic source design for further reducing pose-estimation error.