The invention discloses a mobile robot obstacle avoidance method based on Kinect. In the indoor environment, environment information is obtained through a Kinect sensor, obstacle characteristics are recognized by processing depth information, different obstacles are separated out, the sizes of the obstacles can be estimated and the special obstacles are recognized; according to information of the obstacles, corresponding obstacle scenes are determined, so that corresponding obstacle avoidance strategies are determined, and on the basis of an artificial potential field method, the solution with the high adaptability, good real-time performance and smooth path is provided for real-time obstacle avoidance of an intelligent mobile robot in the unknown indoor environment. The environment information can be better mastered, so that the method is applicable to more indoor scenes, meanwhile, obstacle avoidance is performed on the basis of the artificial potential field method, and the defects existing in some artificial potential field methods are overcome through the environment information by means of advantages of the artificial potential field method.