Aiming at the formation control problem of AUVs based on leader in a known path, a new formation controller combining AUV path control and formation coordination control is proposed. Firstly, in the controller the backstepping adaptive dynamical sliding mode control method is adopted to achieve the path following control of the AUV, which transforms the position, attitude and timevarying velocity tracking to virtual velocity control, makes the AUVs to reach the expected position and velocity, effectively avoids the singular value problem of backstepping control, nicely realizes the control of the uncertain model, and at the same time improves the accuracy of follower collaborative positioning. Secondly, based on the path tracking control, the formation coordination controller converts the position error control of the leader and follower into speed error control of the follower, enables the followers to quickly reach the desired positions and makes all the AUVs achieve and maintain the expected formation. Simulation experiment was carried out to verify feasibility of the proposed control strategy, the result shows that the proposed algorithm improves the response speed, control accuracy and stability of the formation. The test experiment on the lake with three AUVs was conducted, and the result proves the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy, which can be effectively applied in actual situation.