Center of gravity of a polygon

Question

I am trying to write a PHP function that will calculate the center of gravity of a polygon.

I've looked at the other similar questions but I can't seem to find a solution to this.

My problem is that I need to be able to calculate the center of gravity for both regular and irregular polygons and even self intersecting polygons.

Is that possible?

I've also read that: http://paulbourke.net/geometry/polyarea/ But this is restricted to non self intersecting polygons.

How can I do this? Can you point me to the right direction?

Answer 1

The center of gravity (also known as "center of mass" or "centroid" can be calculated with the following formula:

X = SUM[(Xi + Xi+1) * (Xi * Yi+1 - Xi+1 * Yi)] / 6 / A
Y = SUM[(Yi + Yi+1) * (Xi * Yi+1 - Xi+1 * Yi)] / 6 / A

Extracted from Wikipedia: The centroid of a non-self-intersecting closed polygon defined by n vertices (x0,y0), (x1,y1), ..., (xn−1,yn−1) is the point (Cx, Cy), where


and where A is the polygon's signed area,

Example using VBasic:

' Find the polygon's centroid.
Public Sub FindCentroid(ByRef X As Single, ByRef Y As _
    Single)
Dim pt As Integer
Dim second_factor As Single
Dim polygon_area As Single

    ' Add the first point at the end of the array.
    ReDim Preserve m_Points(1 To m_NumPoints + 1)
    m_Points(m_NumPoints + 1) = m_Points(1)

    ' Find the centroid.
    X = 0
    Y = 0
    For pt = 1 To m_NumPoints
        second_factor = _
            m_Points(pt).X * m_Points(pt + 1).Y - _
            m_Points(pt + 1).X * m_Points(pt).Y
        X = X + (m_Points(pt).X + m_Points(pt + 1).X) * _
            second_factor
        Y = Y + (m_Points(pt).Y + m_Points(pt + 1).Y) * _
            second_factor
    Next pt

    ' Divide by 6 times the polygon's area.
    polygon_area = PolygonArea
    X = X / 6 / polygon_area
    Y = Y / 6 / polygon_area

    ' If the values are negative, the polygon is
    ' oriented counterclockwise. Reverse the signs.
    If X < 0 Then
        X = -X
        Y = -Y
    End If
End Sub

For more info check this website or Wikipedia.

Hope it helps.

Regards!

Answer 2

in cold c++ and while assuming that you have a Vec2 struct with x and y properties :

const Vec2 findCentroid(Vec2* pts, size_t nPts){
    Vec2 off = pts[0];
    float twicearea = 0;
    float x = 0;
    float y = 0;
    Vec2 p1, p2;
    float f;
    for (int i = 0, j = nPts - 1; i < nPts; j = i++) {
        p1 = pts[i];
        p2 = pts[j];
        f = (p1.x - off.x) * (p2.y - off.y) - (p2.x - off.x) * (p1.y - off.y);
        twicearea += f;
        x += (p1.x + p2.x - 2 * off.x) * f;
        y += (p1.y + p2.y - 2 * off.y) * f;
    }

    f = twicearea * 3;

    return Vec2(x / f + off.x, y / f + off.y);
}

and in javascript :

function findCentroid(pts, nPts) {
    var off = pts[0];
    var twicearea = 0;
    var x = 0;
    var y = 0;
    var p1,p2;
    var f;
    for (var i = 0, j = nPts - 1; i < nPts; j = i++) {
        p1 = pts[i];
        p2 = pts[j];
        f = (p1.lat - off.lat) * (p2.lng - off.lng) - (p2.lat - off.lat) * (p1.lng - off.lng);
        twicearea += f;
        x += (p1.lat + p2.lat - 2 * off.lat) * f;
        y += (p1.lng + p2.lng - 2 * off.lng) * f;
    }
    f = twicearea * 3;
    return {
    X: x / f + off.lat,
    Y: y / f + off.lng
    };
}

or in good old c and while assuming that you have a Point struct with x and y properties :

const Point centroidForPoly(const int numVerts, const Point* verts)
{
    float sum = 0.0f;
    Point vsum = 0;

    for (int i = 0; i<numVerts; i++){
        Point v1 = verts[i];
        Point v2 = verts[(i + 1) % numVerts];
        float cross = v1.x*v2.y - v1.y*v2.x;
        sum += cross;
        vsum = Point(((v1.x + v2.x) * cross) + vsum.x, ((v1.y + v2.y) * cross) + vsum.y);
    }

    float z = 1.0f / (3.0f * sum);
    return Point(vsum.x * z, vsum.y * z);
}

Answer 3

Swift 4, based on the c answer given above

/// Given an array of points, find the "center of gravity" of the points
/// - Parameters:
///     - points: Array of points
/// - Returns:
///     - Point or nil if input points count < 3
static func centerOfPoints(points: [CGPoint]) -> CGPoint? {
    if points.count < 3 {
        return nil
    }

    var sum: CGFloat = 0
    var pSum: CGPoint = .zero

    for i in 0..<points.count {
        let p1 = points[i]
        let p2 = points[(i+1) % points.count]
        let cross = p1.x * p2.y - p1.y * p2.x
        sum += cross
        pSum = CGPoint(x:((p1.x + p2.x) * cross) + pSum.x,
                       y:((p1.y + p2.y) * cross) + pSum.y)
    }

    let z = 1 / (3 * sum)
    return CGPoint(x:pSum.x * z,
                   y:pSum.y * z)
}