In this paper, an operator-based robust nonlinear control for a human multi-joint arm-like manipulator with time-varying delay measurements is proposed by using robust right coprime factorization approach, a delay compensation operator and a forward predictive operator. That is, first, considering the uncertainties of dynamic model consisting of measurement error and disturbances, an operator- based nonlinear feedback control scheme is designed to eliminate effect of uncertainties. Second, an operator controller based on real measured data from human multi-joint arm viscoelasticity is presented to obtain desired motion mechanism of human multi-joint arm viscoelastic properties, the unknown time-varying delay measurements are described by a delay operator, the delay compensation operator is designed to remove the effect of unknown time-varying delay measurements, and the forward predictive operator is designed to compensate the term related to effect of central nervous system (CNS) during human multi-joint arm movements. The BIBO stability can be guaranteed and the tracking performance can be realized by the designed operator controller, the delay compensation operator and the forward predictive operator. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed design scheme is confirmed by the simulation results based on experimental data.