Underwater vehicles operating in complex ocean conditions present difficulties in determining accurate dynamic models. To guarantee robustness against parameter uncertainty, an adaptive controller for dive-plane control, based on Lyapunov theory and back-stepping techniques, was proposed. In the closed-loop system, asymptotic tracking of the reference depth and pitch angle trajectories was accomplished. Simulation results were presented which show effective dive-plane control in spite of the uncertainties in the system parameters. Underwater vehicles operating in complex ocean conditions present difficulties in determining accurate dynamic models. To guarantee robustness against parameter uncertainty, an adaptive controller for dive-plane control, based on Lyapunov theory and back-stepping techniques, was proposed. In the closed-loop system , asymptotic tracking of the reference depth and pitch angle trajectories was accomplished. Simulation results were presented which show effective dive-plane control in spite of the uncertainties in the system parameters.