Artificial-delay control is a method in which state and input measurements collected at an immediate past time instant (i.e. artificially delayed) are used to compensate the uncertain dynamics affecting the system at the current time. This work formulates an artificial-delay control method with adaptive gains in the presence of nonlinear (Euler-Lagrange) under-actuation. The appeal of studying Euler-Lagrange dynamics is to capture many robotics applications of practical interest, as demonstrated via stability and robustness analysis and via robotic ship and robotic aerial vehicle test cases.