Distributed Allocation of Inter-Vehicle Distances in Platoons With Prescribed Length

We consider a one-dimensional vehicle platoon with asymmetric leader–follower interactions, in which inter-vehicle distances are dynamically reallocated while the total platoon length converges asymptotically to a prescribed constant. A distributed coordination mechanism is introduced to regulate the steady-state spacings according to vehicle-specific weights, without modifying the interaction topology or the desired cruising velocity. The resulting steady-state configuration is characterized in closed form as a weight-balanced allocation, enabling resource-aware formation control under distributed information constraints. The approach is validated through numerical simulations, including a fuel-related performance metric used for comparative evaluation, showing that heterogeneous steady-state spacing can be achieved without altering the prescribed platoon footprint.