Abstract: It is difficult to monitor the cutting load directly during the driving process of roadheader for rock tunnel, which leads to the problem that the cutting speed and swing speed cannot be adjusted in time to adapt to the rock hardness change. In this paper, the rock hardness identification based on cutting motor current signal is studied. By analyzing the transmission characteristics between the cutting dynamic load and the cutting motor current signal, the function model between the cutting motor current and the cutting rock contact strength coefficient is established to identify the cutting rock hardness. Based on the ground test data of EBZ160TY heavy roadheader, the average recognition accuracy is 90.5%. The results show that the cutting motor current signal can effectively identify the cutting rock hardness and provide the reliable basis for automatic control of roadheader.