The design features of multiface soft soil cutterhead, rectangular cutterhead, horseshoeshaped cutterhead and other noncircular cutterhead of tunnel boring machine are summarized; and the key technologies for combination cutterhead of horseshoeshaped tunnel boring machine, i.e. tunnel face flow field simulation, cutterhead static simulation, blind area treatment and rock breaking mechanism, are analyzed emphatically. By studying the abovementioned technologies, design optimization can be provided for combination cutterhead of horseshoeshaped tunnel boring machine. The combination of scraping rock breaking and squeezing rock breaking for horseshoeshaped tunnel boring machine is proposed innovatively. The results can provide reference for cutterhead design of noncircular cutterhead of tunnel boring machine.