Aiming at the nonlinear characteristics of ultrasonic motor (USM) control system, a self-tuning pole assignment speed control strategy is proposed in this paper. The parameters of motor system are identified online, and then the controller is modified online according to the identified parameters of motor. In view of the short-time working characteristic of USM, a method for determining initial values of parameters with online identification algorithms is presented. Using this method, efficient self-tuning control can be realized using a small quantity of testing data. The proposed strategy is robust and relatively simple. Experimental results indicate that the speed control performance is good.