Although direct-drive motors (DD motors) have been available for some time, the appearance of the DD motors now being used in industrial equipment is a relatively recent phenomenon. As DD motors by their basic principle operate without a reduction gear and transmit their rotational force directly, they eliminate the problems that result from interposition of the reduction gear and have enabled faster, more accurate positioning than is obtained with conventional DC and AC servo motors. However, for a long time DD motors have been considered difficult to control and susceptible to external disturbances and load variations which hinders their wider use.The DYNASERV DD motor, developed and introduced by Yokogawa Electric Corp. in 1987 (and now manufactured and marketed by Yokogawa Precision Corp.), exploits a new control system to conquer these weaknesses of the DD motor, and is being put to use in large numbers in a variety of industrial equipment such as assembly robots, chip mounters, and label printing machines. This paper gives an overview of the DYNASERV control system.