Considerable attention has been given to controller designs that utilize the variable structure system theory in order to achieve robust tracking performance of robotic manipulators subjected to parameter variations and extraneous disturbances. However, the theory has not had wide spread acceptance in practical control engineering community due mainly to the worry of chattering which is inherently ever-existing in the variable structure system. This paper presents a novel type of fuzzy-sliding mode controller to alleviate the chattering problem. A sliding mode controller for robust robot control is firstly synthesized with an assumption that the imposed system uncertainties satisfy matching conditions so that certain deterministic performances can parameters and control rules are obtained from a relation between predetermined sliding surfaces and representative points in the error state space. A two degree-of-freedom robotic manipulator subjected to a variable payload and a torque disturbance is considered in order to demonstrate superior tracking performance accrued from the proposed methodology.