Abstract: A cooperative control method based on output feedback for multiple nonlinear systems is applied to cooperatively control the attitude of a multiple rigid body system where quaternion is used to describe the attitude of every rigid body in the whole system. The sufficient conditions for the solvability of the cooperative control problem of multiple rigid body systems are presented. The cooperative control law for multiple rigid body systems is designed. Numerical results show the attitude quaternion of every rigid body can be controlled to convergently approach its stable value.