Sensing and control of position of an electrical discharge

An apparatus comprising one or more magnetic field sensors, one or more magnetic field sources, and a control and data acquisition system that includes a computer system, wherein:

• (a) the one or more magnetic field sensors are arranged about a lateral periphery of a current-containing volume through which a primary electric current flows in a predominantly longitudinal direction (i) through at least portions of first and second longitudinal electrical conductors, which are positioned end-to-end within the current-containing volume and are separated by a discharge gap, and (ii) as one or more primary electric discharges spanning the discharge gap and movable in two transverse dimensions within the discharge gap between the first and second conductors;
• (b) each one of the one or more magnetic field sensors is (i) operatively coupled to the control and acquisition system, (ii) positioned at a corresponding sensor position arranged about the lateral periphery of the current-containing volume, (iii) characterized by one or more corresponding sensor calibration parameters, and (iv) arranged so as to measure magnetic field components in two or more spatial dimensions;
• (c) each one of the one or more magnetic field sources is (i) operatively coupled to the control and acquisition system, (ii) positioned at a corresponding source position arranged about the lateral periphery of the current-containing volume, (iii) characterized by one or more source calibration parameters, and (iv) arranged so as to apply, in response to a corresponding control signal, a corresponding applied magnetic field having a corresponding non-zero component directed transversely across at least a portion of the current-containing volume that includes the discharge gap;
• and
• (d) the computer system comprises one or more electronic processors and one or more digital storage media coupled thereto, and is structured, connected, and programmed so as to (i) calculate an estimated transverse position of the one or more primary electric discharges within the discharge gap, that calculation being based at least in part on two or more of the measured magnetic field components along with one or more corresponding sensor positions or sensor calibration parameters, and (ii) generate, and transmit to the one or more magnetic field sources, the corresponding control signals, based at least in part on the estimated transverse position of the one or more primary electric discharges along with one or more corresponding source positions or source calibration parameters, so that the resulting applied magnetic fields control or alter the estimated position of the electric discharge according to a selected discharge transverse trajectory or a selected discharge transverse distribution.