In the paper a robust indirect adaptive fuzzy controller is proposed for balancing and position control of the inverted pendulum system. Because balancing control rules of the pendulum and position control rules of the cart can be opposite, it is difficult to design an adaptive fuzzy controller that satisfy both objectives. To stabilize the pendulum at a specified position, the proposed fuzzy controller consists of a robust indirect adaptive fuzzy controller for balancing and a supervisory fuzzy controller which emulates heuristic control strategy and arbitrate two control objectives. It is proved that the signals in the overall system are bounded. Simulation results are given to verify the proposed adaptive fuzzy control method.