A combined inertial navigation and laser scanning coal shearer positioning device and method. The positioning device comprises: a positioning device explosion-resistant housing (2) fixed on a coal shearer (1) apparatus; a laser signal receiving module (3); an inertial navigation positioning device (4); and a laser scanning microprocessor (5) installed in the explosion-resistant device. When the coal shearer (1) operates, the inertial navigation positioning device (4) obtains via a sensor a real-time angular rate and a real-time acceleration, and transfers data to an inertial navigation microprocessor (4-3). In the laser scanning device, a laser scanning base station is arranged at an operation area of the coal shearer (1), and a laser signal thereof is received by a laser signal receiving module (3), and at the same time data is transferred to laser scanning microprocessor (5). The microprocessor (4-3, 5) is connected through a serial port to an upper level device (6), and transfers each acquired positioning data item to a coal shearer positioning control system so as to realize data processing. The invention adopts a combined least-squares/neural network algorithm to determine the position of the coal shearer (1), realizing precise positioning.