In this paper, an adaptive formation control based on the leader-following approach is proposed for multiple mobile robots with time varying parameters. The proposed controller does not require the velocity information of the leader robot, which is commonly assumed that it is either measured or telecommunicated. In order to estimate time varying velocities of the leader robot, the smooth projection algorithm is employed. From the Lyapunov stability theory, it is proved that the proposed control scheme can guarantee the uniform ultimate boundedness of error signals of the closed-loop system. Finally, the computer simulations are performed to demonstrate the performance of the proposed control system.