How do you calculate the area of a series of random points?

python math area rc redgreen
TelsaBoil picture TelsaBoil · Aug 30, 2010 · Viewed 10.4k times · Source

So I'm working on a piece of code to take positional data for a RC Plane Crop Duster and compute the total surface area transversed (without double counting any area). I cannot figure out how to calculate the area for a given period of operation.

Given the following Table Calculate the area the points cover.

x,y
1,2
1,5
4,3
6,6
3,4
3,1

Any Ideas? I've browsed Greens Theorem and I'm left without a practical concept in which to code.

Thanks for any advise

Answer

Lior Kogan picture Lior Kogan · Aug 30, 2010

  1. Build the convex hull from the given points

    Algorithms are described here

    See a very nice python demo + src

  2. Calculate its area

    Python code is here

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