In this paper, an adaptive robust nonlinear predictive controller is developed for the continuous time nonlinear systems whose control objective is composed of the system output and its desired value. The basic control law is derived from the continuous time prediction model and its feedback dynamcis shows another from if input and output linearization. In order to cope with the parameter uncertainty, robust control is incorporated into the basic control law and the asymptotic convergence of tracking error to a certain bounded region is guaranteed. For stability and performance improvement within the bounded region, an adaptive control is introduced. Simulation tests for the motion control of an underwater wall-ranging robot confirm the performance improvement and the robustness of this controller