This paper describes the design of a fuzzy adaptive sliding mode controller for tracking control of robotic manipulators. The proposed controller incorporates a modified traditional sliding mode controller to drive the system state to a sliding surface and then keep the system state on this surface, and a fuzzy logic controller to accelerate the reaching phase. The stability of the control system is ensured by using Lyapunov theory. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed controller, computer simulation is conducted for a five-bar planar robotic manipulator. The simulation results show that the proposed controller can improve the reaching time and eliminate chattering of the control system at the same time.