<p>This paper presents a new adaptive fractional-order sliding mode voltage control method for the electrically driven manipulators from the actuator view. The independent joint control is presented with guaranteed stability such that the position of each joint can be directly controlled by its actuator. A quasi-steady-state model of the second order is derived for the third-order system using the perturbation theorem to reduce the complexity of the control design. The proposed fractional-order control scheme offers enhanced flexibility in control design compared to the integer-order one, providing more available control design parameters. The control performance is improved regarding precision and attraction to the zero sliding surface. A novel adaptive reaching law is proposed using a fractional exponent term to increase this attraction. Since using the sign function in the control laws causes the chattering phenomenon, an adaptive boundary layer fractional-order voltage control scheme is proposed for chattering attenuation. Simulation results through comparisons show the superiority of the proposed fractional-order control schemes applied for the SCARA robot driven by permanent magnet direct current motors.</p>