Abstract: According the automatic coal mining face with a coal shearer in a thin seam and the automatic coal mining face with a coal plough in a thin seam, a brief analysis and summarization was conducted on the application status of the related automatic key technology and the restricted factors.An analysis was conducted on th e coal and rock interface identification, the automatic lining technology of the coal mining face equipment, the posture detection and control technology, the plough hea d detection technology, the plough head control technology and other automatic mining key technology needed to be broken through in the present automatic coal minin g face in China. Some technical difficulties needed to be solved in the next development of the automatic coal mining face were provided.The paper summarized the pre sent study status of those technical difficulties and provided the further study orientation.