The model-driven architecture (MDA)/model-based systems engineering (MBSE) approach, in combination with the real-time Unified Modeling Language (UML)/Systems Modeling Language (SysML), unscented Kalman filter (UKF) algorithm, and hybrid automata, are specialized to conveniently analyze, design, and implement controllers of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The dynamics and control structure of AUVs are adapted and integrated with the specialized features of the MDA/MBSE approach as follows. The computation-independent model is defined by the specification of a use case model together with the UKF algorithm and hybrid automata and is used in intensive requirement analysis. The platform-independent model (PIM) is then built by specializing the real-time UML/SysML's features, such as the main control capsules and their dynamic evolutions, which reflect the structures and behaviors of controllers. The detailed PIM is subsequently converted into the platform-specific model by using open-source platforms to quickly implement and deploy AUV controllers. The study ends with a trial trip and deployment results for a planar trajectory-tracking controller of a miniature AUV with a torpedo shape.