Ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) material is one of the innovative smart materials that has recently gained attraction in many medical, industrial and biomimetic fields, especially for micro/nano underwater applications. It can achieve a large deflection under a relatively low driving voltage and also has the features of light weight, agile, noiseless and flexible. However, the performance of this material is significantly affected by its inherent creep behaviour and uncertainties due to internal and external factors such as working environment. These limitations impose challenges for using IPMC as actuators in precise tracking applications. Therefore, this paper proposes a robust tracking control for the IPMC actuator using nonsingular terminal sliding mode (NTSM) to improve the tracking performance. The proposed controller was designed based on an identified model of the IPMC when it is working in water. Experimental investigations demonstrate the efficiency of the designed controller in terms of robustness, tracking accuracy and disturbance rejection.