Abstract: Traditional shearer cutting path optimization methods show poor adaptability when dealing with coal seams significantly affected by fault-induced undulations, and it is difficult to ensure the continuity and stability of the cutting path. To address this problem, a cutting path optimization method for shearer fault crossing based on improved slime mold algorithm and B-spline curve fitting was proposed. First, fault feature information was obtained based on the coal seam geological model, and the control points of the shearer cutting trajectory across faults were planned using B-spline curves. Then, by taking the minimization of the variance between the shearer cutting trajectory and the coal-rock interface curve as the optimization objective, the control points of the cutting trajectory planned by B-spline curves were optimized using an improved slime mold algorithm incorporating artificial bee colony search and neighborhood search strategies, and the optimal weights and thresholds of the control points were obtained. Finally, B-spline curve smoothing fitting was performed by incorporating constraints such as the rock-cutting rate during fault crossing, path smoothness, and cutting trajectory endpoints, and the optimal cutting path for the shearer across faults was obtained. The experimental results showed that, compared with the B-spline–particle swarm and B-spline–mayfly methods, the optimization results of the proposed method were overall closer to the actual coal–rock interface, the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) decreased by 46.87% and 42.05%, respectively, and the Coefficient of Determination (R²) increased by 95.24% and 60.78%, respectively, indicating higher accuracy of cutting path optimization.