Abstract: There are many challenges in the process of underground engineering construction, such as high stress, extremely soft rock, strong mining and other complex conditions. The surrounding rock is difficult to control and its deformation is serious due to the stress concentration and energy accumulation, leading to frequent roof fall, collapse, rock burst and other accidents. Anchor bolt is the main support mode of underground engineering chamber. In order to absorb energy released by surrounding rock deformation and control the deformation of surrounding rock, it is necessary to develop energy-absorbing bolt with high constant resistance, high elongation and high prestress. This paper summarizes and analyzes the development process, performance test and field application of energy-absorbing bolt. Energy-absorbing bolt absorb energy by structural slip and material deformation. According to the working principle, the energy-absorbing bolt can be divided into three types: rod structure type, mechanical structure type and body material type. Compared with structural energy-absorbing bolt, the structure of material energy-absorbing bolt is relatively simple, which can give full play to the mechanical properties of material. The author's team developed a new constant resistance energy-absorbing bolt, and carried out static tensile and dynamic impact tests. The results show that the bolt has high strength, high elongation and high energy absorption characteristics, which can meet the requirements of surrounding rock control under complex conditions. In the future, the test, design, construction and acceptance standards of the constant resistance energy-absorbing bolt should be formulated to realize its application in underground engineering in different fields such as mine, traffic, municipal engineering and water conservancy.