The invention relates to an improved unmanned aerial vehicle route planning method based on an artificial potential field method, and belongs to the field of unmanned aerial vehicle route planning. Firstly, modeling is carried out on a three-dimensional terrain and forest environment space, that is, an external environment is divided into a gravitational field area and a repulsion field area, a gravitational field is established with a target point as the center, a repulsion field is established with an obstacle as the center, it is guaranteed that the target point is a global minimum point of a combined potential field, and therefore an unmanned aerial vehicle can reach the target point in the descending direction of the combined potential field. Then, the resultant force borne by the unmanned aerial vehicle at the current moment is calculated in real time through the potential field intensity of the current position, and the unmanned aerial vehicle advances towards the target point under the combined action of the target gravitational field of the unmanned aerial vehicle and the repulsion field around the obstacle. Meanwhile, whether the unmanned aerial vehicle is trapped in the local point is judged, and if yes, the unmanned aerial vehicle jumps out of the local minimum point through a method of updating the sub-target points in time. Finally, the unmanned aerial vehicle arrives at the target point along the optimal path. The method is higher in calculation efficiency and higher in safety.