This paper proposes a new control strategy to the problem of trajectory tracking of SCARA robotic manipulator system by using a fractional order model reference adaptive controller (FMRAC) for sufficiently smooth trajectories. Over the few last years the idea of introducing fractional calculus and systems in adaptive control has found a great interest, for the benefits one can win in the performances given by such systems. The main contribution of this paper, is to show that the proposed fractional adaptive controller is able to reduce the delay time and the overshoot existing in classical control approach. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach comparatively to the classical integer order one.