Averaging data on the unit hypersphere

Abstract

Averaging data on the unit sphere S d (also called a unit hypersphere) is a common problem in computer vision, robotics and other fields, with applications ranging from motion planning to DNA modelling. In this paper, we introduce a new method for averaging data represented as points on the unit sphere S d−1 using the d-dimensional generalized Kuramoto model. Our method is verified on a range of benchmark data sets and compared with common data averaging algorithms. Also, we showcase the applicability of this method for solving rotation averaging problem.