This paper presents an adaptive neuro-fuzzy sliding mode control (ANFSMC) scheme for diving motion control of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in the presence of parameter perturbations and wave disturbances. In the derivation of diving motion equations of an AUV, the pitch angle of the vehicle is often assumed to be small in the vertical plane. This is a quite strong restricting condition in underwater operations and may cause serious modeling inaccuracies in AUV's dynamics. The problem of nonlinear uncertain diving behavior with restricting assumption on the pitch angle directly is resolved by a neural network (NN) based equivalent control. The online NN estimator is designed to approximate a part of the equivalent control term containing nonlinear unknown dynamics and external disturbances. Subsequently, corrective control based on an adaptive fuzzy proportional-integral control is applied to eliminate the chattering phenomenon by smoothing the switching signal and also compensate structured uncertainties. The weights of NN are updated such that the corrective control signal of the ANFSMC converges towards zero. The adaptive laws are developed to compute coefficients of PID sliding manifold and adjust the gain of fuzzy switching control. The simulation results are presented to shows the efficacy of the control performance. INDEX TERMS Autonomous underwater vehicle, adaptive neuro-fuzzy sliding mode control, diving motion, neural network, parameter perturbations and chattering phenomenon.