Abstract: The paper introduced communication model and equipment structure of CANopen protocol and analyzed an application scheme of CANopen protocol in electrical control system of coal mine excavating equipment. In the electrical control system, special controllers and embedded HMI are network nodes in CANopen communication system and CANopen protocol is used for data transmission among nodes to realize functions of multi-protection of multi-motor, data collection of multi-sensor, real-time display and remote control of running parameters of motors. The industrial test underground showed the CANopen communication system of the electrical control system is stable and reliable without any fault, so as to decrease fault ratio of the whole electrical control system.