Autonomous control system of a high-speed unmanned surface vehicle is designed. The system consists of land-based equipment and onboard equipment, and the exchange of control and data signal between the two parts can be realized with high powered wireless network bridge. There are two control modes in the system: automatic control and manual control, in this way target point navigation and autonomous path planning navigation can be achieved. The system software architecture is based on multi-agent technology, in which the fuzzy adaptive algorithm is used for the cooperative control between course and speed, and the genetic-ant colony algorithm is used for path planning. Unmanned autonomous control system trial platform is developed and tests are carried out in an open water area, including test of fuzzy adaptive control algorithm for course and speed, test of path planning algorithm and test of autonomous navigation function, as well as corresponding data analysis is performed. Test results show that under random interference circumstances, the USV can reach the target point smoothly and efficiently with any initial course and speed. Therefore, the autonomous path-planning navigation can be realized on this basis. © 2016, Editorial Office of Ship Building of China. All right reserved.