A Mathematical Review

A.3 Affine transforms

An affine transform is a generalization of a rigid transform, in which the rotational component {\bf R} is replaced by a general 3\times 3 matrix {\bf A}. This means that an affine transform implements a generalized basis transformation combined with an offset of the origin (Figure A.7). As with {\bf R} for rigid transforms, the columns of {\bf A} still describe the transformed basis vectors {\bf x}^{\prime}, {\bf y}^{\prime}, and {\bf z}^{\prime}, but these are generally no longer orthonormal.

Figure A.7: A position vector {\bf p}_{BA} and a general matrix {\bf A}_{BA} describing the affine position and basis transform of frame B with respect to frame A.

Expressed in terms of homogeneous coordinates, the affine transform {\bf X}_{AB} takes the form

{\bf X}_{BA}=\left(\begin{matrix}{\bf A}_{BA}&{\bf p}_{BA}\\
0&1\end{matrix}\right) (A.18)

with

{\bf X}_{BA}^{-1}=\left(\begin{matrix}{\bf A}_{BA}^{-1}&-{\bf A}_{BA}^{-1}{\bf
p%
}_{BA}\\
0&1\end{matrix}\right). (A.19)

As with rigid transforms, when an affine transform is applied to a vector instead of a point, only the matrix {\bf A} is applied and the translation component {\bf p} is ignored.

Affine transforms are typically used to effect transformations that require stretching and shearing of a coordinate frame. By the polar decomposition theorem, {\bf A} can be factored into a regular rotation {\bf R} plus a symmetric shearing/scaling matrix {\bf P}:

{\bf A}={\bf R}\,{\bf P} (A.20)

Affine transforms can also be used to perform reflections, in which {\bf A} is orthogonal (so that {\bf A}^{T}\,{\bf A}={\bf I}) but with \det{\bf A}=-1.