Abstract In this paper, an improved model-free adaptive control strategy is proposed for the trajectory tracking problem of the wheeled mobile robot (WMR) with time-delay and bounded disturbance. Firstly, the original nonlinear time delay system is transformed into a data model by applying the full-form dynamic linearization method (FFDL). Secondly, the discrete-time extended state observer (DESO) is applied to estimate the unknown residual nonlinear time-varying term. A full-form dynamic linearization model-free adaptive control scheme based on discrete-time extended state observer (DESO-based FFDL MFAC) is proposed. In addition, a full-form dynamic linearization event-triggered model-free adaptive control based on discrete-time extended state observer (DESO-based FFDL ET-MFAC) is established by designing an event-triggering condition to assure Lyapunov stability. The control input signal is updated only if the system indicator meets the provided event-triggering condition; otherwise, the control input remains unchanged which can address limited communication bandwidth effectively. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulation.