This paper discusses the model and control for ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) actuators. Firstly, a mathematical model of the IPMC actuator is constructed as a stable second order dynamical system preceded by a hysteresis representation. Then, an adaptive controller is synthesized for the IPMC actuator. The proposed control law ensures the global stability of the controlled IPMC system, and the position error of IPMC actuator can be controlled by choosing the design parameters. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.