According to the virtual prototyping technology and the theory of dynamics of multi-rigid-body system, a virtual prototyping of ocean mining vehicle was constructed by using 3-dimensional entity modeling software (Pro/E), automatic dynamic analysis of mechanical systems(ADAMS) and advanced visual software(AVS). After 32 new modules were developed with C++ at AVS platform, the interface problems of the 3 types of software were solved effectively and a visual environment for ocean mining subsystem was constructed. Based on the similarity theory and similarity experiments, the validity and reliability of the virtual prototyping were verified. By using the constructed virtual prototyping, the relevant parameters, such as cutting depth, rotation speed of roller,marching speed of mining vehicle can be adjusted one by one. After repeatable virtual tests and analysis its corresponding dynamic characteristics, the structure parameter of mining vehicle and the parameter of mining process can be optimized fast and accurately. The experiment and simulation results show that, under the controlled mining parameters, 4 function expressions between the average force of single pick,average torque,average cutting power,energy consumption ratio and cutting depth are obtained. The maximum force of a single pick is less than 11 090 N and the maximum torque of the roller is less than 3600N·m.