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pythonmatplotlibrandom-walk

Plotting 3D random walk in Python


I want to plot 3-D random walk in Python. Something that is similar to picture given below. Can you suggest me a tool for that. I am trying to use matplotlib for it but getting confused on how to do it.
For now I have a lattice array of zeros which basically is X*Y*Z dimensional and holds the information where random walker has walked, turning 0to 1 on each (x,y,z) that random walker has stepped.

How can I create 3D visual of walk? enter image description here


Solution

  • The following I think does what you are trying to do:

    import matplotlib as mpl
    from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
    import random
    
    mpl.rcParams['legend.fontsize'] = 10
    
    fig = plt.figure()
    ax = fig.gca(projection='3d')
    
    xyz = []
    cur = [0, 0, 0]
    
    for _ in xrange(20):
        axis = random.randrange(0, 3)
        cur[axis] += random.choice([-1, 1])
        xyz.append(cur[:])
    
    x, y, z = zip(*xyz)
    ax.plot(x, y, z, label='Random walk')
    ax.scatter(x[-1], y[-1], z[-1], c='b', marker='o')   # End point
    ax.legend()
    plt.show()
    

    This would give you a random walk looking something like this:

    random walk