ReferenceFrame

R2026b

Coordinate system for position, orientation, and motion

Since R2026b

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    Description

    Add-On Required: This feature requires the 3D Scenarios add-on.

    A ReferenceFrame object defines a coordinate system for specifying position, orientation, and motion. Create a reference frame by using the geoframe, ecefframe, localframe, or bodyframe function.

    Creation

    Create a ReferenceFrame object by using one of these functions:

    • geoframe — Creates a geographic reference frame. Interprets position values using latitude, longitude, and height coordinates.

    • ecefframe — Creates an Earth-centered, Earth-fixed reference frame. Interprets position values using Cartesian coordinates.

    • localframe — Creates a local reference frame where the origin is at a specified geographic origin. Interprets position values using Cartesian coordinates.

    • bodyframe — Creates a body reference frame aligned with the physical body of an actor. Interprets position values using Cartesian coordinates.

    The creation functions set the properties of a ReferenceFrame object. See the individual function reference pages for details.

    Properties

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    This property is read-only after object creation.

    Descriptive name, represented as a string scalar.

    The value of this property depends on the creation function. For example, the geoframe function creates a reference frame with the name "World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84) Frame".

    This property is read-only.

    Reference body, represented as "Earth" or as an Actor object. The reference body is the object to which the reference frame is related.

    The value of this property depends on the creation function. The geoframe, ecefframe, and localframe functions create reference frames with the reference body "Earth". The bodyframe function creates a reference frame using the specified Actor object.

    This property is read-only after object creation.

    Coordinate system reference, represented as a structure array with one or more of these fields:

    • Spheroid — Earth ellipsoid model, represented as a referenceEllipsoid object.

    • Origin — Origin of the coordinate system, represented as a string scalar or a three-element vector. This field defines the position [0 0 0] in the coordinate system.

    • Terrain — Name of the terrain used for height referencing, represented as a string scalar.

    • PrimeMeridian — Prime meridian, represented as a numeric scalar.

    The fields included in the structure array depend on the creation function.

    This property is read-only.

    Coordinate system type, represented as "cartesian" or "geographic".

    The value of this property depends on the creation function. The geoframe function creates a reference frame in a geographic coordinate system. The ecefframe, localframe, and bodyframe functions create reference frames in a Cartesian coordinate system.

    This property is read-only after object creation.

    Axes convention, represented as one of these values:

    • "enu" — East-north-up (ENU)

    • "ned" — North-east-down (NED)

    • "flu" — Forward-left-up (FLU)

    • "frd" — Forward-right-down (FRD)

    • "xyz" — xyz

    The interpretation of this property depends on the coordinate system type.

    • For Cartesian reference frames, this property defines the axes for position, orientation, and motion vectors.

    • For geographic reference frames, this property defines the axes for orientation and motion vectors, but not position.

    The geoframe and localframe functions support the ENU and NED conventions. The bodyframe function supports the FLU and FRD conventions. The ecefframe uses the xyz convention.

    For more information about axes conventions, see Specify Coordinate Conventions for 3D Scenarios.

    Version History

    Introduced in R2026b

    See Also

    Functions

    Topics