Robust fault diagnosis based on adaptive observer is studied for a class of nonlinear systems up to output injection. Adaptive fault updating laws are designed to guarantee the stability of the diagnosis system. The upper bounds of the state estimation error and fault estimation error of the adaptive observer are given respectively and the effects of parameter in the adaptive updating laws on fault estimation accuracy are also discussed. Simulation example demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed methods and the analysis results. Robust fault diagnosis based on adaptive observer is studied for a class of nonlinear systems up to output injection. Adaptive fault updating laws are designed to guarantee the stability of the diagnosis system. The upper bounds of the state estimation error and fault estimation error of the adaptive Observer are given respectively and the effects of parameter in the adaptive updating laws on fault estimation accuracy are also discussed. Simulation example demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed methods and the analysis results.