rodrigues_vector_ro​tation

Version 2.0.0 (1.94 KB) by Duijnhouwer
Rotate one 3D-vector around another
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Updated 12 Apr 2020

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rodrigues_vector_rotation - rotate a 3D vector around another

Rotate vector v around (unit) vector k by theta_rad following the right hand rule.

Vector k will be made a unit vector internally. So its length is irrelevant as long a its greater than 0.

This function is vectorized:
- v can be a 3xN matrix of N vectors that are each rotated around k.
*OR*
- theta_rad can be a vector of N angles.
In either case the output will be 3xN matrix.

Example:
k=[-1;-1;1];
k=k(:)/norm(k);
v=[k(1:2);0];
theta_rads=0:pi/90:(2*pi);
vr = qx.rodrigues_vector_rotation(v,k,theta_rads);
oo=zeros(size(theta_rads));
quiver3(0,0,0,k(1),k(2),k(3),'r','LineWidth',2);
hold on
quiver3(oo,oo,oo,vr(1,:),vr(2,:),vr(3,:));
axis equal
rotate3d('on')

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodrigues%27_rotation_formula

Note: the vectorization for multiple vectors is not a true vectorization, internally a for-loop is used. If you, dear reader, can manage do this without one please let me know how.

Cite As

Duijnhouwer (2026). rodrigues_vector_rotation (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/74970-rodrigues_vector_rotation), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved .

MATLAB Release Compatibility
Created with R2020a
Compatible with any release
Platform Compatibility
Windows macOS Linux
Version Published Release Notes
2.0.0

Vectorized the function, that is, you can now rotate a matrix of many matrices at once, or you can provide multiple angles to return multiple rotated versions of a. k can only be one value at this moment.

1.0.0