Abstract: Automatic control of dense medium coal separation process based on traditional control methods has problems of high energy consumption, large fluctuation of ash content and so on, while advanced control can improve dynamic performances of the process and make the system run close to the optimal state. Firstly, dense medium coal separation technology is introduced with characteristics analysis of multi-time scales and multi-rate. Based on factor analysis of strong nonlinearity, multi-variable coupling, time variant and multi-interference in dense medium coal separation process, difficulties of advanced control of dense medium coal separation process are analyzed, which are about mathematical modeling, tracking control of operation indexes, stability and accurate perception of key parameters. Secondly, research progresses of advanced control of dense medium coal separation process are summarized in terms of process modeling, density control of dense medium suspension and ash content control of clean coal. Finally, prospects about future research directions of advanced control of dense medium coal separation process are made, which involve visualization platform construction of dense medium coal separation based on big data, prior knowledge and data hybrid driven intelligent optimization and control orienting dense medium coal separation process, research on prediction methods of product quality and efficiency, and virtual experimental platform construction of dense medium coal separation.