For implementing the cooperative formation control of multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in complex underwater environments, designed a distributed control law based on artificial potential field and virtual leaders with blind area. A feedback control law is given for pre-specified formation of AUVs in an obstacle-free environment, the formation control law based on virtual leaders with blind area for reducing communication requirements was studied, and a mathematic model of the formation control for AUVs was established. The feedback control law for pre-specified formation can achieve flocking for a group of AUVs in an obstacle-free environment and lead to reduced communication requirements. The efficiency of the proposed control law was validated by simulation experiment.