<p>The path tracking control of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in high-speed marine applications faces significant challenges due to complex oceanic environment, nonlinear coupled dynamics, uncertain hydrodynamic coefficients, and payload variation. The conventional methods like proportional–integral–derivative and sliding mode control struggle to handle complex oceanic scenarios effectively. In order to cope with these control issues, it is required to have control strategies with intelligence, adaptive capability, fast convergence, and robustness. This article proposes a dynamic surface-based second-order sliding mode control integrated with Aquila optimization for regulating the yaw angle of AUV, as the optimization algorithm offers better quasi-optimal solutions. Further, the disturbance observer is designed to resolve the influence of exogenous disturbances such as ocean waves, wind, current, and measurement noise. In addition, the thruster model nonlinearity, like a non-symmetric dead zone with unpredictable parameters, is smoothly handled through an auxiliary dynamic compensator. The closed-loop stability of AUV is analysed using the Lyapunov function and confirming asymptotic stability under ocean disturbances and parametric uncertainties in adverse scenarios. Finally, numerical simulation results illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control method.</p>