worldrelative

Worldrelative is an adjective used to describe quantities, coordinates, or descriptions defined with reference to a fixed, global world coordinate system rather than a local or object-centered frame. In this usage, positions, orientations, and motions are expressed relative to a shared world frame rather than to the moving observer or sensor. This emphasizes a universal reference against which changes over time can be measured and compared.

In robotics, autonomous navigation, and computer vision, world-relative representations support consistent mapping and localization across time and devices. A world-relative pose specifies an object's position and orientation in the world frame, while a world-relative velocity expresses motion with respect to the global axes. This approach contrasts with object-relative or sensor-relative representations, which depend on the observer's or robot's own frame and can drift if not continually transformed to a global reference.

Typical world frames include geographic coordinate systems (such as latitude, longitude, and altitude in a geodetic system like WGS84) or a locally defined map frame used in simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). Practical challenges involve establishing and maintaining a stable global origin, transforming data between world-relative and local frames, and mitigating drift in inertial or visual measurements that impede global consistency. Tools such as GPS, SLAM, and inertial measurement units are employed to maintain world-relative accuracy.

Relation to related terms: world-relative is often used interchangeably with world-frame, global-frame, or georeferenced representations in contexts where a universal reference is essential for interoperability and long-term alignment.