The invention discloses an unmanned aerial vehicle path planning method and system based on an artificial potential field method. The method comprises the steps: dividing a space planning region intoa plurality of discrete three-dimensional space grids according to space information grids, and removing the three-dimensional space grids only containing obstacles; acquiring position information ofunmanned aerial vehicle clusters; and clustering and grouping the unmanned aerial vehicle clusters, and generating a path planning scheme of each clustering center after clustering and grouping of theunmanned aerial vehicle clusters according to an artificial potential field method, wherein the path planning scheme of each group of unmanned aerial vehicles after clustering and grouping of the unmanned aerial vehicle cluster is consistent with the path planning scheme of each clustering center. According to the invention, the space planning area is divided through a grid method, unequal division is carried out on the vertical height, grids where obstacles are located are removed, the search space is reduced, the calculation efficiency is improved, the time consumed for path planning through the artificial potential field method is shorter, the method is more suitable for a dynamic environment, the search efficiency is improved on the premise that the planning quality is guaranteed, andthe maneuverability of a path finding algorithm is enhanced.