This present work aims to characterize systematically the interaction between an excavator-mounted drum cutter and soil/rock materials. Regarding this, a model for predicting components of resistance forces on an individual tooth and the whole drum cutter is first presented. In this regard, effects of geometrical configurations (e.g., pick shape and arrangement) and working parameters (e.g., cutting speeds and regime or cutting type) of the drum cutter on the total cutting resistance force/torque and the specific consumption energy during the cutting process are investigated. The obtained results indicate that the cutting parameters and the specific energy consumption depend strongly on the geometrical as well as working parameters of the drum cutter. In addition, by using the proposed framework, the optimal energy consumption could be archived within the appropriate design of the selected drum cutter.