2: Representing position and orientation

A fundamental requirement in robotics and computer vision is to represent the position and orientation of objects in an environment. Such objects include robots, cameras, workpieces, obstacles and paths. Position and orientation together is referred to as pose.

This chapter covers:

• Points in space
• Coordinate frames
• Representing orientation in 2D using angles and orthonormal rotation matrices
• Representing pose in 2D using homogeneous transformation matrices
• Representing orientation in 3D using Euler angles, roll-pitch-yaw angles, quaternions and orthonormal rotation matrices
• Representing pose in 3D using homogeneous transformation matrices