Abstract: The life of the drum cutters is shortened and the coal output rate is reduced due to the problem that the shearer up-drum often cuts the roof rocks. It is therefore essential to plan the cutting path of the up-drum. However, the characteristic features of traditional methods are large errors, inability to adapt to changes in geological conditions and complicated algorithms. A method for cutting coal path planning of shearer up-drum based on double arc spline curve is proposed to solve the above problems. Firstly, the data of borehole, return airway, headentry and open-off cut from the working face is collected to build a three-dimensional geologic model of coal seam; Secondly, the model is simulated and cut to obtain a set of roof control points according to the coal wall spatial coordinate system, and a continuous control point coordinate system is established with two adjacent points as a group. The arc radius and center coordinates are calculated according to the basic structure of double arc, and the path between two adjacent control points, namely the up-drum cutting path, is obtained according to the arc parameters. A genetic algorithm is used to analyze the relationship between the roof curve and the cutting path so as to establish the rock fitness function model. A more reasonable and accurate cutting path is achieved by simulating and optimizing the cutting path through selection, crossover and mutation operations. Simulation results show that a smoother cutting path is obtained through genetic algorithm optimization. The error range between the up-drum cutting path and the roof is 0.183 9-0.349 3 m. The problem that the up-drum cutting the roof rocks has been improved, indicating that the optimized path effectively reduces the gangue amount and increases the recovery rate.