rotations

Working with Rotation Data

v1.6.6 · Sep 28, 2025 · MIT + file LICENSE

Description

Tools for working with rotational data, including simulation from the most commonly used distributions on SO(3), methods for different Bayes, mean and median type estimators for the central orientation of a sample, confidence/credible regions for the central orientation based on those estimators and a novel visualization technique for rotation data. Most recently, functions to identify potentially discordant (outlying) values have been added. References: Bingham, Melissa A. and Nordman, Dan J. and Vardeman, Steve B. (2009), Bingham, Melissa A and Vardeman, Stephen B and Nordman, Daniel J (2009), Bingham, Melissa A and Nordman, Daniel J and Vardeman, Stephen B (2010), Leon, C.A. and Masse, J.C. and Rivest, L.P. (2006), Hartley, R and Aftab, K and Trumpf, J. (2011), Stanfill, Bryan and Genschel, Ulrike and Hofmann, Heike (2013), Maonton, Jonathan (2004), Mardia, KV and Jupp, PE (2000, ISBN:9780471953333), Rancourt, D. and Rivest, L.P. and Asselin, J. (2000), Chang, Ted and Rivest, Louis-Paul (2001), Fisher, Nicholas I. (1996, ISBN:0521568900).

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Flavor	Status	Time
r-devel-linux-x86_64-debian-clang	ERROR	198.3s
r-devel-linux-x86_64-debian-gcc	ERROR	139.3s
r-devel-linux-x86_64-fedora-clang	ERROR	216.8s
r-devel-linux-x86_64-fedora-gcc	ERROR	358.7s
r-devel-windows-x86_64	ERROR	288s
r-oldrel-macos-arm64	OK
r-oldrel-macos-x86_64	OK	373s
r-oldrel-windows-x86_64	ERROR	340s
r-patched-linux-x86_64	OK	194.2s
r-release-linux-x86_64	OK
r-release-macos-arm64	OK	40s
r-release-macos-x86_64	OK	161s
r-release-windows-x86_64	OK	298s

Check details (11 non-OK)

ERROR r-devel-linux-x86_64-debian-clang

examples

Running examples in ‘rotations-Ex.R’ failed
The error most likely occurred in:

> base::assign(".ptime", proc.time(), pos = "CheckExEnv")
> ### Name: Q4
> ### Title: 'Q4' class for storing rotation data as quaternions
> ### Aliases: Q4 as.Q4 as.Q4.default as.Q4.SO3 as.Q4.Q4 as.Q4.data.frame
> ###   is.Q4 id.Q4
> ### Keywords: datasets
> 
> ### ** Examples
> 
> # Pull off subject 1's wrist measurements
> Subj1Wrist <- subset(drill, Subject == '1' & Joint == 'Wrist')
> 
>                                ## The measurements are in columns 5:8
> all(is.Q4(Subj1Wrist[,5:8]))   #TRUE, even though Qs is a data.frame, the rows satisfy the
[1] TRUE
>                                #conditions necessary to be quaternions BUT,
>                                #S3 methods (e.g. 'mean' or 'plot') for objects of class
>                                #'Q4' will not work until 'as.Q4' is used
> 
> Qs <- as.Q4(Subj1Wrist[,5:8])  #Coerce measurements into 'Q4' type using as.Q4.data.frame
> all(is.Q4(Qs))                 #TRUE
Error in x[i, ...] : subscript out of bounds
Calls: is.Q4 -> apply -> [ -> [.Q4
Execution halted

ERROR r-devel-linux-x86_64-debian-clang

tests

Running ‘test-all.R’ [3s/4s]
Running the tests in ‘tests/test-all.R’ failed.
Complete output:
  > library(testthat)
  > test_check("rotations")
  Loading required package: rotations
  Saving _problems/test_conversions-10.R
  [ FAIL 1 | WARN 2 | SKIP 0 | PASS 51 ]
  
  ══ Failed tests ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
  ── Failure ('test_conversions.R:10:1'): (code run outside of `test_that()`) ────
  Expected `is.Q4(as.Q4(u, r))` to be TRUE.
  Differences:
  `actual`:   FALSE
  `expected`: TRUE 
  
  
  [ FAIL 1 | WARN 2 | SKIP 0 | PASS 51 ]
  Error:
  ! Test failures.
  Execution halted

ERROR r-devel-linux-x86_64-debian-gcc

examples

Running examples in ‘rotations-Ex.R’ failed
The error most likely occurred in:

> base::assign(".ptime", proc.time(), pos = "CheckExEnv")
> ### Name: Q4
> ### Title: 'Q4' class for storing rotation data as quaternions
> ### Aliases: Q4 as.Q4 as.Q4.default as.Q4.SO3 as.Q4.Q4 as.Q4.data.frame
> ###   is.Q4 id.Q4
> ### Keywords: datasets
> 
> ### ** Examples
> 
> # Pull off subject 1's wrist measurements
> Subj1Wrist <- subset(drill, Subject == '1' & Joint == 'Wrist')
> 
>                                ## The measurements are in columns 5:8
> all(is.Q4(Subj1Wrist[,5:8]))   #TRUE, even though Qs is a data.frame, the rows satisfy the
[1] TRUE
>                                #conditions necessary to be quaternions BUT,
>                                #S3 methods (e.g. 'mean' or 'plot') for objects of class
>                                #'Q4' will not work until 'as.Q4' is used
> 
> Qs <- as.Q4(Subj1Wrist[,5:8])  #Coerce measurements into 'Q4' type using as.Q4.data.frame
> all(is.Q4(Qs))                 #TRUE
Error in x[i, ...] : subscript out of bounds
Calls: is.Q4 -> apply -> [ -> [.Q4
Execution halted

ERROR r-devel-linux-x86_64-debian-gcc

tests

Running ‘test-all.R’ [2s/2s]
Running the tests in ‘tests/test-all.R’ failed.
Complete output:
  > library(testthat)
  > test_check("rotations")
  Loading required package: rotations
  Saving _problems/test_conversions-10.R
  [ FAIL 1 | WARN 2 | SKIP 0 | PASS 51 ]
  
  ══ Failed tests ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
  ── Failure ('test_conversions.R:10:1'): (code run outside of `test_that()`) ────
  Expected `is.Q4(as.Q4(u, r))` to be TRUE.
  Differences:
  `actual`:   FALSE
  `expected`: TRUE 
  
  
  [ FAIL 1 | WARN 2 | SKIP 0 | PASS 51 ]
  Error:
  ! Test failures.
  Execution halted

ERROR r-devel-linux-x86_64-fedora-clang

examples

Running examples in ‘rotations-Ex.R’ failed
The error most likely occurred in:

> ### Name: Q4
> ### Title: 'Q4' class for storing rotation data as quaternions
> ### Aliases: Q4 as.Q4 as.Q4.default as.Q4.SO3 as.Q4.Q4 as.Q4.data.frame
> ###   is.Q4 id.Q4
> ### Keywords: datasets
> 
> ### ** Examples
> 
> # Pull off subject 1's wrist measurements
> Subj1Wrist <- subset(drill, Subject == '1' & Joint == 'Wrist')
> 
>                                ## The measurements are in columns 5:8
> all(is.Q4(Subj1Wrist[,5:8]))   #TRUE, even though Qs is a data.frame, the rows satisfy the
[1] TRUE
>                                #conditions necessary to be quaternions BUT,
>                                #S3 methods (e.g. 'mean' or 'plot') for objects of class
>                                #'Q4' will not work until 'as.Q4' is used
> 
> Qs <- as.Q4(Subj1Wrist[,5:8])  #Coerce measurements into 'Q4' type using as.Q4.data.frame
> all(is.Q4(Qs))                 #TRUE
Error in x[i, ...] : subscript out of bounds
Calls: is.Q4 -> apply -> [ -> [.Q4
Execution halted

ERROR r-devel-linux-x86_64-fedora-clang

tests

Running ‘test-all.R’ [4s/586s]
Running the tests in ‘tests/test-all.R’ failed.
Complete output:
  > library(testthat)
  > test_check("rotations")
  Loading required package: rotations
  Saving _problems/test_conversions-10.R
  [ FAIL 1 | WARN 2 | SKIP 0 | PASS 51 ]
  
  ══ Failed tests ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
  ── Failure ('test_conversions.R:10:1'): (code run outside of `test_that()`) ────
  Expected `is.Q4(as.Q4(u, r))` to be TRUE.
  Differences:
  `actual`:   FALSE
  `expected`: TRUE 
  
  
  [ FAIL 1 | WARN 2 | SKIP 0 | PASS 51 ]
  Error:
  ! Test failures.
  Execution halted

ERROR r-devel-linux-x86_64-fedora-gcc

examples

Running examples in ‘rotations-Ex.R’ failed
The error most likely occurred in:

> ### Name: Q4
> ### Title: 'Q4' class for storing rotation data as quaternions
> ### Aliases: Q4 as.Q4 as.Q4.default as.Q4.SO3 as.Q4.Q4 as.Q4.data.frame
> ###   is.Q4 id.Q4
> ### Keywords: datasets
> 
> ### ** Examples
> 
> # Pull off subject 1's wrist measurements
> Subj1Wrist <- subset(drill, Subject == '1' & Joint == 'Wrist')
> 
>                                ## The measurements are in columns 5:8
> all(is.Q4(Subj1Wrist[,5:8]))   #TRUE, even though Qs is a data.frame, the rows satisfy the
[1] TRUE
>                                #conditions necessary to be quaternions BUT,
>                                #S3 methods (e.g. 'mean' or 'plot') for objects of class
>                                #'Q4' will not work until 'as.Q4' is used
> 
> Qs <- as.Q4(Subj1Wrist[,5:8])  #Coerce measurements into 'Q4' type using as.Q4.data.frame
> all(is.Q4(Qs))                 #TRUE
Error in x[i, ...] : subscript out of bounds
Calls: is.Q4 -> apply -> [ -> [.Q4
Execution halted

ERROR r-devel-linux-x86_64-fedora-gcc

tests

Running ‘test-all.R’
Running the tests in ‘tests/test-all.R’ failed.
Complete output:
  > library(testthat)
  > test_check("rotations")
  Loading required package: rotations
  Saving _problems/test_conversions-10.R
  [ FAIL 1 | WARN 2 | SKIP 0 | PASS 51 ]
  
  ══ Failed tests ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
  ── Failure ('test_conversions.R:10:1'): (code run outside of `test_that()`) ────
  Expected `is.Q4(as.Q4(u, r))` to be TRUE.
  Differences:
  `actual`:   FALSE
  `expected`: TRUE 
  
  
  [ FAIL 1 | WARN 2 | SKIP 0 | PASS 51 ]
  Error:
  ! Test failures.
  Execution halted

ERROR r-devel-windows-x86_64

examples

Running examples in 'rotations-Ex.R' failed
The error most likely occurred in:

> ### Name: Q4
> ### Title: 'Q4' class for storing rotation data as quaternions
> ### Aliases: Q4 as.Q4 as.Q4.default as.Q4.SO3 as.Q4.Q4 as.Q4.data.frame
> ###   is.Q4 id.Q4
> ### Keywords: datasets
> 
> ### ** Examples
> 
> # Pull off subject 1's wrist measurements
> Subj1Wrist <- subset(drill, Subject == '1' & Joint == 'Wrist')
> 
>                                ## The measurements are in columns 5:8
> all(is.Q4(Subj1Wrist[,5:8]))   #TRUE, even though Qs is a data.frame, the rows satisfy the
[1] TRUE
>                                #conditions necessary to be quaternions BUT,
>                                #S3 methods (e.g. 'mean' or 'plot') for objects of class
>                                #'Q4' will not work until 'as.Q4' is used
> 
> Qs <- as.Q4(Subj1Wrist[,5:8])  #Coerce measurements into 'Q4' type using as.Q4.data.frame
> all(is.Q4(Qs))                 #TRUE
Error in x[i, ...] : subscript out of bounds
Calls: is.Q4 -> apply -> [ -> [.Q4
Execution halted

ERROR r-devel-windows-x86_64

tests

Running 'test-all.R' [3s]
Running the tests in 'tests/test-all.R' failed.
Complete output:
  > library(testthat)
  > test_check("rotations")
  Loading required package: rotations
  Saving _problems/test_conversions-10.R
  [ FAIL 1 | WARN 0 | SKIP 0 | PASS 51 ]
  
  ══ Failed tests ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
  ── Failure ('test_conversions.R:10:1'): (code run outside of `test_that()`) ────
  Expected `is.Q4(as.Q4(u, r))` to be TRUE.
  Differences:
  `actual`:   FALSE
  `expected`: TRUE 
  
  
  [ FAIL 1 | WARN 0 | SKIP 0 | PASS 51 ]
  Error:
  ! Test failures.
  Execution halted

ERROR r-oldrel-windows-x86_64

tests

Running 'test-all.R' [3s]
Running the tests in 'tests/test-all.R' failed.
Complete output:
  > library(testthat)
  > test_check("rotations")
  Loading required package: rotations
  Saving _problems/test_estimators-21.R
  Saving _problems/test_estimators-22.R
  Saving _problems/test_estimators-23.R
  Saving _problems/test_estimators-24.R
  Saving _problems/test_estimators-26.R
  Saving _problems/test_estimators-27.R
  Saving _problems/test_estimators-28.R
  Saving _problems/test_estimators-29.R
  [ FAIL 8 | WARN 0 | SKIP 0 | PASS 44 ]
  
  ══ Failed tests ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
  ── Failure ('test_estimators.R:21:1'): (code run outside of `test_that()`) ─────
  Expected `mean(Qs)` to equal `as.Q4(mean(Rs))`.
  Differences:
  Mean relative difference: 5.218084e-07
  ── Failure ('test_estimators.R:22:1'): (code run outside of `test_that()`) ─────
  Expected `mean(Qs, type = "geometric")` to equal `as.Q4(mean(Rs, type = "geometric"))`.
  Difference
...[truncated]...
tors.R:26:1'): (code run outside of `test_that()`) ─────
  Expected `as.SO3(matrix(as.SO3(mean(Qs)), 3, 3))` to equal `mean(Rs)`.
  Differences:
  Mean relative difference: 6.942713e-07
  ── Failure ('test_estimators.R:27:1'): (code run outside of `test_that()`) ─────
  Expected `as.SO3(matrix(as.SO3(mean(Qs, type = "geometric")), 3, 3))` to equal `mean(Rs, type = "geometric")`.
  Differences:
  Mean relative difference: 4.325217e-07
  ── Failure ('test_estimators.R:28:1'): (code run outside of `test_that()`) ─────
  Expected `as.SO3(matrix(as.SO3(median(Qs)), 3, 3))` to equal `median(Rs)`.
  Differences:
  Mean relative difference: 4.958146e-07
  ── Failure ('test_estimators.R:29:1'): (code run outside of `test_that()`) ─────
  Expected `as.SO3(matrix(as.SO3(median(Qs, type = "geometric")), 3, 3))` to equal `median(Rs, type = "geometric")`.
  Differences:
  Mean relative difference: 1.332558e-06
  
  [ FAIL 8 | WARN 0 | SKIP 0 | PASS 44 ]
  Error:
  ! Test failures.
  Execution halted

Check History

ERROR 11 OK · 0 NOTE · 0 WARNING · 2 ERROR · 0 FAILURE Jun 19, 2026

ERROR r-devel-linux-x86_64-fedora-clang

examples

Running examples in ‘rotations-Ex.R’ failed
The error most likely occurred in:

> ### Name: Q4
> ### Title: 'Q4' class for storing rotation data as quaternions
> ### Aliases: Q4 as.Q4 as.Q4.default as.Q4.SO3 as.Q4.Q4 as.Q4.data.frame
> ###   is.Q4 id
...[truncated]...
til 'as.Q4' is used
> 
> Qs <- as.Q4(Subj1Wrist[,5:8])  #Coerce measurements into 'Q4' type using as.Q4.data.frame
> all(is.Q4(Qs))                 #TRUE
Error in x[i, ...] : subscript out of bounds
Calls: is.Q4 -> apply -> [ -> [.Q4
Execution halted

ERROR r-devel-linux-x86_64-fedora-gcc

examples

Running examples in ‘rotations-Ex.R’ failed
The error most likely occurred in:

> ### Name: Q4
> ### Title: 'Q4' class for storing rotation data as quaternions
> ### Aliases: Q4 as.Q4 as.Q4.default as.Q4.SO3 as.Q4.Q4 as.Q4.data.frame
> ###   is.Q4 id
...[truncated]...
til 'as.Q4' is used
> 
> Qs <- as.Q4(Subj1Wrist[,5:8])  #Coerce measurements into 'Q4' type using as.Q4.data.frame
> all(is.Q4(Qs))                 #TRUE
Error in x[i, ...] : subscript out of bounds
Calls: is.Q4 -> apply -> [ -> [.Q4
Execution halted

OK 13 OK · 0 NOTE · 0 WARNING · 0 ERROR · 0 FAILURE Jun 13, 2026

ERROR 12 OK · 0 NOTE · 0 WARNING · 1 ERROR · 0 FAILURE Jun 4, 2026

ERROR r-devel-linux-x86_64-debian-gcc

examples

Running examples in ‘rotations-Ex.R’ failed
The error most likely occurred in:

> base::assign(".ptime", proc.time(), pos = "CheckExEnv")
> ### Name: Q4
> ### Title: 'Q4' class for storing rotation data as quaternions
> ### Aliases: Q4 as.Q4 as.Q4.de
...[truncated]...
til 'as.Q4' is used
> 
> Qs <- as.Q4(Subj1Wrist[,5:8])  #Coerce measurements into 'Q4' type using as.Q4.data.frame
> all(is.Q4(Qs))                 #TRUE
Error in x[i, ...] : subscript out of bounds
Calls: is.Q4 -> apply -> [ -> [.Q4
Execution halted

OK 12 OK · 0 NOTE · 0 WARNING · 0 ERROR · 0 FAILURE Apr 25, 2026

ERROR 10 OK · 3 NOTE · 0 WARNING · 1 ERROR · 0 FAILURE Apr 18, 2026

ERROR r-devel-windows-x86_64

whether package can be installed

Installation failed.
See 'd:/Rcompile/CRANpkg/local/4.6/rotations.Rcheck/00install.out' for details.

NOTE r-oldrel-macos-arm64

installed package size

installed size is 11.5Mb
  sub-directories of 1Mb or more:
    R      2.5Mb
    data   2.7Mb
    libs   5.7Mb

NOTE r-oldrel-macos-x86_64

installed package size

installed size is 11.0Mb
  sub-directories of 1Mb or more:
    R      2.1Mb
    data   2.7Mb
    libs   5.5Mb

NOTE r-oldrel-windows-x86_64

installed package size

installed size is  6.4Mb
  sub-directories of 1Mb or more:
    R      1.6Mb
    data   2.7Mb
    libs   1.4Mb

NOTE 11 OK · 3 NOTE · 0 WARNING · 0 ERROR · 0 FAILURE Mar 10, 2026

NOTE r-oldrel-macos-arm64

installed package size

installed size is 11.5Mb
  sub-directories of 1Mb or more:
    R      2.5Mb
    data   2.7Mb
    libs   5.7Mb

NOTE r-oldrel-macos-x86_64

installed package size

installed size is 11.0Mb
  sub-directories of 1Mb or more:
    R      2.1Mb
    data   2.7Mb
    libs   5.5Mb

NOTE r-oldrel-windows-x86_64

installed package size

installed size is  6.4Mb
  sub-directories of 1Mb or more:
    R      1.6Mb
    data   2.7Mb
    libs   1.4Mb

Reverse Dependencies (1)

imports

ETRep

Dependency Network

Version History

16 tracked

new 1.6.6 Mar 10, 2026

updated 1.6.6 ← 1.6.5 diff Sep 28, 2025

updated 1.6.5 ← 1.6.4 diff Dec 7, 2023

updated 1.6.4 ← 1.6.3 diff Jun 23, 2022

updated 1.6.3 ← 1.6.2 diff Nov 24, 2021

updated 1.6.2 ← 1.6.1 diff Mar 11, 2021

updated 1.6.1 ← 1.6 diff Apr 2, 2020

updated 1.6 ← 1.5 diff Mar 27, 2020

updated 1.5 ← 1.4 diff Jan 5, 2016

updated 1.4 ← 1.3 diff Oct 13, 2015

updated 1.3 ← 1.2 diff Dec 15, 2014

updated 1.2 ← 1.1 diff Apr 6, 2014

updated 1.1 ← 1.0 diff Feb 22, 2014

updated 1.0 ← 0.2 diff Jan 27, 2014

updated 0.2 ← 0.1 diff Dec 9, 2013