This study presents the application of the aquila optimizer (AO) algorithm to determine the parameters of the proportional integral derivative (PID) controller to control the speed of a dc motor. The AO method is inspired by the most popular bird of prey in the northern hemisphere named Aquila. Initially, the proposed AO algorithm is applied to unimodal and multimodal benchmark optimization problems. To get the performance of the AO method, the controller is compared with other methods, namely Seagull optimization algorithm (SOA), marine predators algorithm, giza pyramids construction (GPC), and chimp optimization algorithm (ChOA). The results represent that the AO is promising and shows the effectiveness. Determination of PID parameters using the AO method for dc motor speed control system shows superior performance.