Abstract: An active mating device is proposed, which has four two-degree-of-freedom manipulators around the mating skirt outer. The primary function of the device is to achieve exact mating between the underwater vehicle and the wrecked submarine under a badly subsea environment. To implement autonomous operation, according to the characteristics of ~rescue, a method is brought forward that describes the mating process between the underwater vehicle and the manipulators as an automaton model. Based on this, the timed discrete event system is introduced and applied to the coordinated control of the active mating device of underwater vehicle. After solving the time problem, it is a practical method to control mating.