Rotational Trajectory Synopsis Groups

Abstract

We construct finite-dimensional Lie-group summaries of based rotational paths that retain the exact terminal attitude and selected iterated angular-velocity integrals. These summaries, called rotational trajectory synopses, compose exactly under path concatenation. Building on the classical works of Magnus and Chen, we establish endpoint-retaining body, spatial, and hybrid synopsis groups at every finite order and give a uniform matrix realization for the evaluated Magnus hierarchy. We distinguish this hierarchy from the full Chen signature from order three onward and prove \chg{that the exact endpoint is independent of every finite truncation of the body, spatial, or combined angular-velocity signature: the synopsis maps are surjective at every finite order}. An underactuated satellite example connects the retained coordinates to geometric phase in spacecraft attitude dynamics.