Summary: A novel robust fuzzy sliding mode observer design and a disturbance reconstruction method are proposed for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems described by Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model. Firstly, a description which is equivalent to the form of T-S fuzzy model is proposed. Secondly, auxiliary variables are constructed to satisfy the matching condition of sliding mode observer, and a high gain approximator is developed to approximate immeasurable states. To avoid the peak problem occurred to the high gain approximator, we propose a robust sliding mode observer for this high gain approximator. Then, under the equivalent form, a robust fuzzy sliding mode observer is developed for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems. We prove that the proposed observer is robust to unknown disturbances, and ensure state estimation residuals to converge to an arbitrarily small neighborhood in a limited period of time. At the same time, system disturbance is reconstructed through the involved principle of equivalent output error. This method is applied to simulate a two-link robot control system; simulation results demonstrate the validity of the proposed method.