This work proposes a control structure to be applied to robotic manipulators, which are articulated mechanical systems composed of links connected by joints. The proposed controller can be divided into two parts. The first one is a left inverse system, which is used to decouple the dynamic behavior of the joints. The second is a sliding mode controller, which is applied for each decoupled joint. It is important to note that the proposed structure, using only input/output measurements, reduces the control signal 'chattering', and it is robust to parametric uncertainties. Besides all the characteristics presented, the proposed structure simplifies the design of sliding mode controller to be applied in robotic manipulators. All these features are verified by simulations.