Abstract In this research, generation of a short and smooth path in three-dimensional space with obstacles for guiding an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) without collision is investigated. This is done by utilizing spline technique, in which the spline control points positions are determined by Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) in three-dimensional space such that the shortest possible path from the starting point to the target point without colliding with obstacles is achieved. Furthermore, for guiding the UUV in the generated path, an Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Logic Controller (IT2FLC), the coefficients of which are optimized by considering an objective function that includes quadratic terms of the input forces and state error of the system, is used. Selecting such objective function reduces the control error and also the force applied to the UUV, which consequently leads to reduction of energy consumption. Therefore, by using a special method, desired signals of UUV state are obtained from generated three-dimensional optimal path such that tracking these signals by the controller leads to the tracking of this path by UUV. In this paper, the dynamical model of the UUV, entitled as "mUUV-WJ-1" , is derived and its hydrodynamic coefficients are calculated by CFD in order to be used in the simulations. For simulation by the method presented in this study, three environments with different obstacles are intended in order to check the performance of the IT2FLC controller in generating optimal paths for guiding the UUV. In this article, in addition to ICA, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) are also used for generation of the paths and the results are compared with each other. The results show the appropriate performance of ICA rather than ABC and PSO. Moreover, to evaluate the performance of the IT2FLC, optimal Type-1 Fuzzy Logic Controller (T1FLC) and Proportional Integrator Differentiator (PID) controller are designed and applied to the UUV and compared with each other. The simulation results show the superiority of the IT2FLC than the other two controllers.