The bow and depth motions of the remote operated vehicle (ROV) system with cable are characterized by strong nonlinearity and uncertainty of the operating environment,etc.In view of the motion characteristics of the ROV,a motion control model was constructed and simplified,and the adaptive S-plane control method was constructed to control the bow and depth,the stability of the control method was proved by using Lyapunovs stability criterion,and the stability and control quality of the controller method was verified by simulation.Meanwhile,compared with the S-plane control method,the adaptive S-plane control method has better dynamic and static performance,fast adjustment speed,and strong stability,and it can accurately control the ROV motion.