In this paper, a robust observer design method for nonlinear multi input multi-output(MINO) plants is presented. This method enables the extension of the time delay observer (TDO) for nonlinear SISO plants in the phase variable form to MIMO plants. The designed TDO reconstructs the states of the plant expressed in the generalized observability canonical form (GOBCF), yet requiring neither the transformation of a plant, nor the real time computation coordinates, the observer turned out to be computationally efficient and easy to design for nonlinear MIMO plants. In a simulation of a two-link manipulator with flexible joints, the control performances using TDO appeared to be similar to those using actual states and superior to those using numerical differentiation. Finally, in an experiment with a robot, it was confirmed that the TDO reconstructs the states reliability and TDO can be effectively used in a real closed-loop system.