QTFIND Name
QTFIND
Author
Craig B. Markwardt, NASA/GSFC Code 662, Greenbelt, MD 20770
craigm@lheamail.gsfc.nasa.gov
UPDATED VERSIONs can be found on my WEB PAGE:
http://cow.physics.wisc.edu/~craigm/idl/idl.html
Purpose
Find quaternion(s) from direction cosine matrix
Major Topics
Geometry
Calling Sequence
Q = QTFIND(MATRIX)
Description
The function QTFIND determines one or more unit quaternions from
direction cosine matrices.
This routine is optimized to avoid singularities which occur when
any one of the quaternion components is nearly zero. Up to four
different transformations are attempted to maximize the precision
of all four quaternion components.
QTFIND and QTMAT are functional inverses: use QTFIND to convert a
known direction cosine matrix to a new quaternion; use QTMAT to
convert a known quaternion to matrix representation.
Conventions for storing quaternions vary in the literature and from
library to library. This library uses the convention that the
first three components of each quaternion are the 3-vector axis of
rotation, and the 4th component is the rotation angle. Expressed
in formulae, a single quaternion is given by:
Q(0:2) = [VX, VY, VZ]*SIN(PHI/2)
Q(3) = COS(PHI/2)
where PHI is the rotation angle, and VAXIS = [VX, VY, VZ] is the
rotation eigen axis expressed as a unit vector. This library
accepts quaternions of both signs, but by preference returns
quaternions with a positive 4th component.
Inputs
MATRIX - array of one or more direction cosine matrices. For a
single matrix, MATRIX should be a 3x3 array. For N
matrices, MATRIX should be a 3x3xN array. The arrays are
assumed to be valid rotation matrices.
Returns
The resulting unit quaternions. For a single matrix, returns a
single quaternion as a 4-vector. For N matrices, returns N
quaternions as a 4xN array. Keyword Parameters
NONE Example
;; Form a rotation matrix about the Z axis by 32 degrees
th1 = 32d*!dpi/180
mat1 = [[cos(th1),-sin(th1),0],[sin(th1),cos(th1),0],[0,0,1]]
;; Form a rotation matrix about the X axis by 116 degrees
th2 = 116d*!dpi/180
mat2 = [[1,0,0],[0,cos(th2),-sin(th2)],[0,sin(th2),cos(th2)]]
;; Find the quaternion that represents MAT1, MAT2 and the
composition of the two, MAT2 ## MAT1.
print, qtfind(mat1), qtfind(mat2), qtfind(mat2 ## mat1)
0.0000000 0.0000000 0.27563736 0.96126170
0.84804810 0.0000000 0.0000000 0.52991926
0.81519615 -0.23375373 0.14606554 0.50939109
See Also
QTANG, QTAXIS, QTCOMPOSE, QTERP, QTEXP, QTFIND, QTINV, QTLOG,
QTMAT, QTMULT, QTPOW, QTVROT
Modification History
Written, July 2001, CM
Documented, Dec 2001, CM
Re-added check to enforce q(3) GE 0, 15 Mar 2002, CM
Usage message, error checking, 15 Mar 2002, CM