Aiming at the path planning of mobile robots, because the fitness function in the traditional genetic algorithm takes the shortest path as the main factor to be inherited to the next generation,too many times of robot turning lead to the problem of time waste. A path planning method based on improved genetic algorithm was proposed.By adding the control factor of turning angle to the fitness function, the shortest path and the turning angle were taken as the influencing factors of the value of the individual fitness function of the path, and the improved fitness function was analyzed for its convergence. Finally, the simulation experiments were carried out by MATLAB.The results show that the trajectory of robot is more smooth,and the number of turns has been reduced. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the algorithm.