Finite-time distributed cooperative attitude tracking control for multiple rigid spacecraft

We investigate the finite-time cooperative attitude synchronization and tracking control for multiple rigid spacecrafts with a time-varying leader, whose attitude is represented by modified rodriguez parameters. In particular, the studied systems are composed of one dynamic leader with bounded unknown acceleration inputs and some followers with bounded disturbances. A novel nonlinear tracking control protocol is constructed via nonsingular terminal sliding mode scheme. It is shown that the proposed protocol can effectively drive the states of the followers to track the leader within the finite-time. Finally, an example is illustrated to verify the proposed protocol.