Abstract: This paper describes development and implementation of a decentralized continuous sliding mode motion controller for the robot manipulators. Adaptive fuzzy logic systems (FLSs), one for each robot axis, are employed to approximate almost a whole system dynamics. The structural properties of the robot dynamics are used for division of the each FLS to three simpler subsystems. This reduces the FLSs complexity, emphasizes their transparency and enables systematized inclusion of the linguistic knowledge. The validity of the controller scheme was tested by experiments on a three-degree of freedom direct drive robot.