In this paper,an adaptive observer for robust control of robotic manipulators is proposed.The lumped uncertainty is estimated using Chebyshev polynomials.Usually,the uncertainty upper bound is required in designing observer-controller structures.However,obtaining this bound is a challenging task.To solve this problem,many uncertainty estimation techniques have been proposed in the literature based on neuro-fuzzy systems.As an alternative,in this paper,Chebyshev polynomials have been applied to uncertainty estimation due to their simpler structure and less computational load.Based on strictly-positive-real (SPR) Lyapunov theory,the stability of the closed-loop system can be verified.The Chebyshev coefficients are tuned based on the adaptation rules obtained in the stability analysis.Also,to compensate the truncation error of the Chebyshev polynomials,a continuous robust control term is designed while in previous related works,usually a discontinuous term is used.An SCARA manipulator actuated by permanent magnet DC motors is used for computer simulations.Simulation results reveal the superiority of the designed method.