Objective To obtain the optimal parameters in the acoustic assisted shear thickening polishing (ASTP) process of bearing steelcylindrical surface. Methods The Taguchi method was used to analyze and optimize the parameters such as acoustic frequency, acoustic power and acoustic waveform which would influence the material removed rate (MRR) and the surface roughness (Ra). The optimized parameters were gained taking MRR and Ra as the evaluation indexes, and multi-group experiments were carried out to verify the reliability of the results under the optimized ASTP conditions and the surface morphology of the processed workpieces was investigated by the test methods including metallurgical microscopy and optical profilometry. Results When the MRR was used as the evaluation index, acoustic frequency was the most significant influencing factor, followed by acoustic power and then acoustic waveform. While Ra was used as the index, acoustic waveform was the most significant influencing factor, followed by acoustic frequency and acoustic power. Conclusion Based on the analysis results, MRR reached the highest value of 11. 32 μm/ h under the conditions of 20 Hz acoustic frequency, 25 W acoustic power and sine wave acoustic waveform. The surface quality of the workpiece was the best under the conditions of 60 Hz acoustic frequency, 25 W acoustic power and sine wave acoustic waveform, and the surface roughness Ra was reduced rapidly from 100 nm to 4. 48 nm after 1 hour processing and the lowest roughness was 4. 48 nm.