A robust direct torque control(DTC) for six-phase symmetrical winding permanent magnet synchronous motor(6PMSM) is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the switching table is optimized for suppressing the zero-sequence current and improving the utilization of DC bus voltage. Secondly, the fault tolerant ability of the proposed strategy is researched under the occasion of one phase, two phases and three phases opened. Finally, the proposed DTC strategy is verified. The simulation and experiment results show that: 1) under fault-free condition the zero-sequence current is effectively suppressed, and the static and dynamic performance of the system is excellent; 2) under open phase fault condition, the smooth operation can be realized without the reconstruction of hardware and software.