16.

333: Lecture #3

Frame Rotations Euler Angles Quaternions

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Euler Angles

For general applications in 3D, often need to perform 3 separate rotations to relate our inertial frame to our body frame Especially true for aircraft problems There are many ways to do this set of rotations with the variations be based on the order of the rotations All would be acceptable Some are more commonly used than others

Standard: start with the body frame (x, y, z) aligned with the inertial (X, Y, Z), and then perform 3 rotations to reorient the body frame.
Rotate by about Z x , y , z Rotate by about y x , y , z Rotate by about x x, y, z

Euler angles: Heading/yaw Pitch Roll

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Can write these rotations in a convenient form: x c s 0 X X y = s c 0 Y = T3() Y z 0 0 1 Z Z x c 0 s x x y = 0 1 0 y = T2() y z s 0 c z z x 1 0 0 x x y = 0 c s y = T1() y z 0 s c z z which combines to give: x X
y = T1()T2()T3() Y
z Z
cc cs s X = cs + ssc cc + sss sc Y ss + csc sc + css cc Z

Note that the order that these rotations are applied matters and will greatly change the answer matrix multiplies of Ti must be done consistently.

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To get the angular velocity in this case, we have to include three

terms:
about Z about y about x which we combine to get Want to write in terms of its components in nal frame (body) Use the rotation matrices Example: rotate about Z z 0 In terms of X, Y, Z, frame rotation rate has components 0 , which is the same as in frame x, y , z To transform a vector from x, y , z to x, y, z, need to use T1()T2() 0 Similar operation for about y y use T1() on 0

Final result:

0 0 x b = y = T1()T2() 0 + T1() + 0 z 0 0

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Visualization: Can write = + +

But do not form a mutually , , orthogonal triad

Need to form the orthogonal projec tions onto the body frame x, y , z

0 0 x b = y = T1()T2() 0 + T1() + 0 z 0 0 Final form x = sin y = cos + cos sin z = sin + cos cos With inverse: = x + [y sin + z cos ] tan = y cos z sin = [y sin + z cos ] sec

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Need to watch for singularities at || = 90 If we limit 0 2 2 2 0 < 2 then any possible orientation of the body can be obtained by per forming the appropriate rotations in the order given. These are a pretty standard set of Euler angles

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Quaternions

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Theorem by Euler states that any given sequence of rotations can be represented as a single rotation about a single xed axis Quaterions provide a convenient parameterization of this eective axis and the rotation angle

b1
E sin /2
b b =
2
= cos /2

b3

b4 where E is a unit vector and is a positive rotation about E Notes: b = 1 and thus there are only 3 degrees of freedom in this formulation as well If b represents the rotational transformation from the reference frame a to reference frame b, the frame a is aligned with frame b when frame a is rotated by radians about E In terms of the Euler Angles: sin =
2(b2b4 + b1b3)
= arctan 2 2(b2b3 b1b4), 1 2(b2 + b2) 1 2

2 2 = arctan 2 2(b1b2 b3b4), 1 2(b2 + b3) Pros: Singularity free; Computationally ecient to do state propagation in time compared to Euler Angles
Cons:
Far less intuitive less appealing Refs: Kuipers, Quaternions and rotation sequences, 1999 Princeton University Press.