Because the unmanned automatic dredging system of the cutter suction dredger covers many disciplines such as artificial intelligence,fluid mechanics,soil mechanics,dredging process,signal processing,etc.,the research progress in this field is slow,and there are few reports in the literature on the development of unmanned automatic dredging systems for cutter suction dredgers.In response to the above-mentioned problems,relying on the development process of the “Tian Kun Hao” unmanned automatic dredging system,we discuss the key aspects of the design scheme,control function,automatic dredging control mode,dredging system model and automatic dredging controller.The field test method is used to test the operation effect of the unmanned automatic dredging system of “Tian Kun Hao”.The results show that the unmanned automatic dredging system can achieve stable production and high productivity,and the productivity is improved more than 15% compared with the manual control.The unmanned automatic dredging system improves the automation technology of the cutter suction dredger and opens a new era of intelligence in China's dredging industry.