Complete Guide to Rotations & Transformations
Attitude representations and coordinate transformations are fundamental to almost every GNC, robotics, and 3D simulation system — yet the different conventions and standards used across industries are a persistent source of confusion. This course cuts through that confusion with a rigorous but practical treatment of the subject.
You will come away with a thorough understanding of all three major rotation representations, how to convert between them, and how to implement them in working code.
What You Will Learn
- How to represent attitude using Direction Cosine Matrices (DCMs), Euler Angles, and Quaternions
- How to convert between all three representations
- How to calculate transforms between different reference frames
- The advantages, disadvantages, and practical trade-offs of each approach
- The conventions and standards commonly used in industry — and where they differ
- How to implement a complete C++ Attitude Math Library from scratch
- How to use Python to analyse and validate attitude-related problems
Who This Course Is For
- Aerospace and GNC engineers who need a rigorous reference for rotation mathematics
- Engineers and scientists building simulations or flight software
- Programmers implementing attitude systems in game engines (Unity, Unreal) or robotics frameworks
- University students studying GNC, robotics, or computer graphics
- Anyone who wants to move from understanding the theory to writing working code
Prerequisites
A working knowledge of linear algebra (matrix multiplication, transposes, determinants) and basic trigonometry is assumed. No prior knowledge of rotations or attitude representations is required.
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A discount is available for this course — check back here once the mailing list is live.