This paper presents the design and development of a robust proportional derivative (PD) controller based on linear matrix inequality (LMI) for the control of a hub angular position and end-point deflection of a planar two-link flexible manipulator. The dynamics of the manipulator is uncertain and time varying due to the variation of payloads that result in large variations in the excitation of flexible modes. Practical design steps are presented in which the LMI-based conditions are formulated to obtain a robust PD gains to control the flexible manipulator. The robust controller has an advantage as compared to the Ziegler-Nichols tuned PD controller as the identified PD gains can be used to control the system under various loading conditions. The performances of the proposed controller are evaluated in terms of input tracking capability of the hub angular position response and level of deflection of both links of the flexible manipulator. Experimental results show that despite using the same sets of PD gains, LMI-PD control provides better robustness and system performance.