This paper investigates MIMO mechanical systems with unknown actuator nonlinearities. A novel Nussbaum analysis tool for MIMO systems is established such that unknown time-varying control coefficients are tackled. In contrast to existing literatures on continuous-time systems, the newly-developed Nussbaum tool focuses on extending the traditional Nussbaum result from one dimensional case to the multiple one. Specifically,not only the multiple unknown input coefficients are extended to the time-varying, but also the limitation of the prior knowledge of coefficients’ upper and lower bounds is removed. Furthermore,an adaptive robust controller associated with the proposed tool is presented. The asymptotic tracking of MIMO mechanical systems is guaranteed with the help of the Lyapunov Theorem. Finally,a simulation example is provided to examine the validity of the proposed scheme. This paper investigates MIMO mechanical systems with unknown actuator nonlinearities. A novel Nussbaum analysis tool for MIMO systems is established such that unknown time-varying control coefficients are tackled. In contrast to existing literatures on continuous-time systems, the newly-developed Nussbaum tool on extending the traditional Nussbaum result from one dimensional case to the multiple one. Specifically, not only the multiple unknown input coefficients are extended to the time-varying, but also the limitation of the prior knowledge of coefficients’ upper and lower bounds is removed. Finally, a simulation example is provided to examine the validity of the proposed scheme.