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Asked: 2026-05-14T21:24:21+00:00

I’m trying to generate some points at random distances away from a fixed point

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I’m trying to generate some points at random distances away from a fixed point using GPS.

How can I add distance in meters to a GPS coordinate?
I’ve looked at UTM to GPS conversion but is there a simpler method to achieve this?

I’m working on Android platform just in case.

Cheers,
fgs

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team
    • P0(lat0,lon0) : initial position (unit : degrees)
    • dx,dy : random offsets from your initial position in meters

    You can use an approximation to compute the position of the randomized position:

     lat = lat0 + (180/pi)*(dy/6378137)
 lon = lon0 + (180/pi)*(dx/6378137)/cos(lat0)

    This is quite precise as long as the random distance offset is below 10-100 km

    Edit: of course in Java Math.cos() expects radians so do use Math.cos(Math.PI/180.0*lat0) if lat0 is in degrees as assumed above.

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