This paper describes an adaptive fuzzy control strategy for decentralized control for a class of interconnected nonlinear systems with MIMO subsystems. An adaptive robust tracking control schemes based on fuzzy basis function approach is developed such that all the states and signals are bounded. In addition, each subsystem is able to adaptively compensate for disturbances and interconnections with unknown bounds. The resultant adaptive fuzzy decentralized control with multi-controller architecture guarantees stability and convergence of the output errors to zero asymptotically by local output-feed back. An extensive application example of a three-machine power system is discussed in detail to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.