In this paper, an adaptive sliding-mode formation control and collision avoidance are proposed for electrically driven nonholonomic mobile robots with model uncertainties and external disturbances. A sliding surface based on the leader-follower approach is developed to achieve the desired formation in the presence of model uncertainties and disturbances. Moreover, by using the collision avoidance function, the mobile robots can avoid the obstacles successfully. Finally, simulations illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control system.