Abstract—In this paper, we propose a distributed guiding vector-fifield (DGVF) algorithm for a team of robots to form a spontaneous-orderingplatoon moving along a predefifined desired path in then-dimensional Euclidean space. Particularly, by adding a path parameter as an additional virtual coordinate to each robot, the DGVF algorithm can eliminate thesingular points where the vector fifields vanish, and govern robots to approach aclosedand evenself-intersectingdesired path. Then, the in teractions among neighboring robots and a virtual target robot through their virtual coordinates enable the realization of the desired platoon; in particular, relative parametric displacements can be achieved with arbitrary ordering sequences. Rigorous analysis is provided to guarantee the global convergence to the spontaneous-orderingplatoon on the common desired path from any initial positions. 2D experiments using three HUSTER-0.3 unmanned surface vessels (USVs) are conducted to validate the practical effectiveness of the proposed DGVF algorithm, and 3D numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate its effectiveness and robustness when tackling higher-dimensional multirobot path-navigation missions and some robots breakdown.