A field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based intelligent dynamic sliding-mode control (IDSMC) using recurrent wavelet neural network (RWNN) estimator is proposed to control the mover position of a linear ultrasonic motor (LUSM) in this study. First, the structure and operating principles of the LUSM are introduced briefly. Then, the dynamics of LUSM mechanism with the introduction of a lumped uncertainty, which include the friction force, is derived. Since the dynamic characteristics and motor parameters of the LUSM are non-linear and time-varying, an IDSMC using RWNN estimator is designed to achieve robust control performance of the LUSM drive system. The RWNN estimator is employed to estimate the non-linear functions including the system parameters and external disturbance. Moreover, the adaptive learning algorithm trained the parameters of the RWNN online is derived using the Lyapunov stability theorem. Furthermore, an FPGA chip is adopted to implement the developed control and on-line learning algorithms for possible low-cost and high-performance industrial applications. The experimental results show that excellent positioning and tracking performance are achieved. In addition, the robustness to parameter variations and friction force can be obtained as well using the proposed control system.