The present invention relates to a model based positioning system that includes a positioning device having at least one transmitter configured to be in a tracking environment, e.g. inserted into a body, a receiver having a plurality of receiver elements arranged outside the tracking environment, a control unit configured to measure amplitude and/or phase information of a signal transmitted from the at least one transmitter and received at each receiving element, and a memory unit M for storing a model for each receiving element. The control unit is also configured to estimate the position P of the positioning device by comparing the model for each receiving element with the measured received signal for each receiving element.
