Abstract We propose a practical discontinuous feedback control scheme for the regulation of joint positions of robotic manipulators. A robust on-off switching control strategy based on a pulse-width-modulation (PWM) feedback scheme is proposed for the joint torques. The discontinuous PWM controller design is carried out on the basis of a suitable controller designed for an average model which is of continuous nature. Simulations of the closed-loop performance of the proposed control scheme are presented for a two-link robotic manipulator.