Abstract: For working status of pipe belt conveyor driven by two motors at head and one motor at tail, considering viscoelastic mechanics characteristics of conveyor belt, a discrete model for belt and driving drum of pipe belt conveyor was built in AMESim software based on Kelvin-Voigt model. Power balance control principle of three-motor driving system was researched on basis of direct torque control for three-phase asynchronous motor, and a starting control method of pipe belt conveyor was proposed which was based on speed given of master motor and torque given of two slave motors. Starting process of pipe belt conveyor based on the method was researched through Matlab/Simulink simulation and comprehensive test bed of pipe belt conveyor. The research results show that the method can realize stable starting of pipe belt conveyor, output torques of master motor at head and slave motors at head and tail are basically equal during staring process, and load differences are almost zero after starting for 4 s.