Abstract: A design scheme of adaptive fuzzy controller for a class of uncertain MIMO nonlinear systems with unknown dead-zones and a triangular control structure is proposed in this paper. The design is based on the principle of sliding mode control and the property of Nussbaum function. The approach does not require a priori knowledge of the signs of the control gains and the upper bounds and lower bounds of dead-zone parameters to be known a priori. By introducing the integral-type Lyapunov function and adopting the adaptive compensation term of the upper bound of the optimal approximation error and the dead-zone disturbance, the closed-loop control system is proved to be semi-globally stable in the sense that all signals involved are bounded, with tracking errors converging to zero.