Attempts to explore the change law of cutting force and the relationship between cutting forceand coal rock hardness in the process of different hardness coal rock cutting, so as to overcome the cut-ting control problem of shield intelligent tunneling robot system. The cutting robot in the shield intelli-gent tunneling system is taken as the research object, and the methods of theoretical analysis, systemsimulation and field test are used to examine the cutting ability of the shield intelligent tunneling sys-tem. The results shows: when the cutting speed and depth are constant, the cutting force increases withthe increase of the hardness of coal rock; when the cutting hardness and cutting speed of coal rock areunchanged, the cutting force of the cutting robot increases with the increase of cutting depth, and thecutting speed and hardness of coal rock are unchanged, the maximum cutting depth of the cutting robotcan be obtained. The results of the experimental and the simulation are consistented, and the contrasterror is in a comparatively smaller range. It indicated that the simulation research method can be usedin the study of the cutting operation control of the cutting robot to determine the cutting ability of thecutting robot, which provides a theoretical basis for the rapid tunneling of coal mine roadway cutting.