CLLocation Category for Calculating Bearing w/ Haversine function

Question

I'm trying to write a category for CLLocation to return the bearing to another CLLocation.

I believe I'm doing something wrong with the formula (calculous is not my strong suit). The returned bearing is always off.

I've been looking at this question and tried applying the changes that were accepted as a correct answer and the webpage it references:

Calculating bearing between two CLLocationCoordinate2Ds

http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/latlong.html

Thanks for any pointers. I've tried incorporating the feedback from that other question and I'm still just not getting something.

Thanks

Here's my category -

----- CLLocation+Bearing.h

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import <CoreLocation/CoreLocation.h>


@interface CLLocation (Bearing)

-(double) bearingToLocation:(CLLocation *) destinationLocation;
-(NSString *) compassOrdinalToLocation:(CLLocation *) nwEndPoint;

@end

---------CLLocation+Bearing.m

#import "CLLocation+Bearing.h"

double DegreesToRadians(double degrees) {return degrees * M_PI / 180;};
double RadiansToDegrees(double radians) {return radians * 180/M_PI;};


@implementation CLLocation (Bearing)

-(double) bearingToLocation:(CLLocation *) destinationLocation {

 double lat1 = DegreesToRadians(self.coordinate.latitude);
 double lon1 = DegreesToRadians(self.coordinate.longitude);

 double lat2 = DegreesToRadians(destinationLocation.coordinate.latitude);
 double lon2 = DegreesToRadians(destinationLocation.coordinate.longitude);

 double dLon = lon2 - lon1;

 double y = sin(dLon) * cos(lat2);
 double x = cos(lat1) * sin(lat2) - sin(lat1) * cos(lat2) * cos(dLon);
 double radiansBearing = atan2(y, x);

 return RadiansToDegrees(radiansBearing);
}

Answer 1

Your code seems fine to me. Nothing wrong with the calculous. You don't specify how far off your results are, but you might try tweaking your radian/degrees converters to this:

double DegreesToRadians(double degrees) {return degrees * M_PI / 180.0;};
double RadiansToDegrees(double radians) {return radians * 180.0/M_PI;};

If you are getting negative bearings, add 2*M_PI to the final result in radiansBearing (or 360 if you do it after converting to degrees). atan2 returns the result in the range -M_PI to M_PI (-180 to 180 degrees), so you might want to convert it to compass bearings, using something like the following code

if(radiansBearing < 0.0)
    radiansBearing += 2*M_PI;

Answer 2

This is a porting in Swift of the Category at the beginning:

import Foundation
import CoreLocation
public extension CLLocation{

    func DegreesToRadians(_ degrees: Double ) -> Double {
        return degrees * M_PI / 180
    }

    func RadiansToDegrees(_ radians: Double) -> Double {
        return radians * 180 / M_PI
    }


    func bearingToLocationRadian(_ destinationLocation:CLLocation) -> Double {

        let lat1 = DegreesToRadians(self.coordinate.latitude)
        let lon1 = DegreesToRadians(self.coordinate.longitude)

        let lat2 = DegreesToRadians(destinationLocation.coordinate.latitude);
        let lon2 = DegreesToRadians(destinationLocation.coordinate.longitude);

        let dLon = lon2 - lon1

        let y = sin(dLon) * cos(lat2);
        let x = cos(lat1) * sin(lat2) - sin(lat1) * cos(lat2) * cos(dLon);
        let radiansBearing = atan2(y, x)

        return radiansBearing
    }

    func bearingToLocationDegrees(destinationLocation:CLLocation) -> Double{
        return   RadiansToDegrees(bearingToLocationRadian(destinationLocation))
    }
}

Answer 3

Here is another implementation

public func bearingBetweenTwoPoints(#lat1 : Double, #lon1 : Double, #lat2 : Double, #lon2: Double) -> Double {

func DegreesToRadians (value:Double) -> Double {
    return value * M_PI / 180.0
}

func RadiansToDegrees (value:Double) -> Double {
    return value * 180.0 / M_PI
}

let y = sin(lon2-lon1) * cos(lat2)
let x = (cos(lat1) * sin(lat2)) - (sin(lat1) * cos(lat2) * cos(lat2-lon1))

let degrees = RadiansToDegrees(atan2(y,x))

let ret = (degrees + 360) % 360

return ret;

}

Answer 4

Working Swift 3 and 4

Tried so many versions and this one finally gives correct values!

extension CLLocation {


    func getRadiansFrom(degrees: Double ) -> Double {

        return degrees * .pi / 180

    }

    func getDegreesFrom(radians: Double) -> Double {

        return radians * 180 / .pi

    }


    func bearingRadianTo(location: CLLocation) -> Double {

        let lat1 = self.getRadiansFrom(degrees: self.coordinate.latitude)
        let lon1 = self.getRadiansFrom(degrees: self.coordinate.longitude)

        let lat2 = self.getRadiansFrom(degrees: location.coordinate.latitude)
        let lon2 = self.getRadiansFrom(degrees: location.coordinate.longitude)

        let dLon = lon2 - lon1

        let y = sin(dLon) * cos(lat2)
        let x = cos(lat1) * sin(lat2) - sin(lat1) * cos(lat2) * cos(dLon)

        var radiansBearing = atan2(y, x)

        if radiansBearing < 0.0 {

            radiansBearing += 2 * .pi

        }


        return radiansBearing
    }

    func bearingDegreesTo(location: CLLocation) -> Double {

        return self.getDegreesFrom(radians: self.bearingRadianTo(location: location))

    }


}

Usage:

let degrees = location1.bearingDegreesTo(location: location2)