How to plot a single vector on a polarhistogram with data.

I have a polarhistogram that is plotting my data in 36 bins. I want to create a vector showing the average orientation on the same plot. How can I plot a single vector at an angle that I manually calculated?

Answer 1

[Soumya]

Hi Patrick,

To plot a vector at a manually calculated angle in MATLAB, you can utilize the ‘polarplot’ function. Polar plots are excellent for representing data in circular coordinates, making them ideal for visualizing directional information such as angles.

Here is a step-by-step example of how you can plot a vector at a manually calculated angle:

• Create a polar histogram in 36 bins using your data:

polarhistogram(data, 36); % 36 bins

• Use ‘hold on’ to add more elements. This command is crucial because it allows you to overlay additional elements on the existing plot.
• Add the manually calculated angle.

average_angle = pi / 4;

• Set the vector length to the maximum radius of the plot by retrieving the current radial limits with ‘rlim’ and using the upper limit.

rlim_vals = rlim; % Get the current radial limits  
vector_length = rlim_vals(2); % Use the maximum radius of the plot

• Use the ‘polarplot’ function to draw the vector on the polar plot where you can specify the angle and the length of the vector.

polarplot([average_angle average_angle], [0 vector_length], 'r-', 'LineWidth', 2);

The output generated by the above code would resemble the following:

To know more about ‘polarplot’ function, you can refer to the following documentation:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/polar-plots.html

I hope this helps!