If a stable system is actuated by energy (Lyapunov function), the energy will be automatically attenuated in infinite time. The state will finally converge to the equilibrium point. But the trajectory of the state is not constrained. However, in the finite-time stability, the system state would be bounded in finite-time interval. The bounds of the state are prescribed. Thus, the finite-time stability has a great application potential for systems in which large values of the state are not acceptable. In spite of the extensive and successful applications of finite-time stability in automatic control and estimation areas, the ability to handle complex systems such as delayed systems, fuzzy systems, and singularly perturbed systems needs to be further expanded.

The aim of this special issue is to document the up-to-date status of work on control systems design by finite-time techniques via a collection of original high-quality papers. Of particular interest the papers in this special issue are devoted to the new concept development of the finite-time technique and the applications of these new concepts on control and estimation problems of complex systems. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Finite-time boundedness (theoretical and mathematical development)
• Finite-time approaches on networked control and estimation (limited communication capacity, distributed control and filtering, and priority scheduling)
• Finite-time delayed systems, stability, stabilization, control, and filtering
• Finite-time modeling, analysis and design on fuzzy systems, and switched systems
• Finite-time stochastic systems
• Practical applications of finite-time systems

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aaa/guidelines/ Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/aaa/cds/ according to the following timetable: