The invention discloses a position-based active intention recognition method of a rehabilitation robot, and belongs to the field of rehabilitation robots. The method mainly comprises the steps of defining the maximum continuous rotation angle or maximum continuous motion distance of the joints as one circle; dividing the defined circle into a plurality of sectors; defining the size of a recognition area; defining the driving ratio and error ratio of two variables; setting variables for storing the armature current value and joint speed of a servo motor of each sector, reading the armature current values and the joint speeds, and conducting judgement; defining a variable switching factor; setting a switching threshold value. With the current and the speed as evidences of patient's intention recognition, the position-based active intention recognition method of the rehabilitation robot has the advantages that without additionally arranging other devices, the rehabilitation robot is simple in structure, small in size, safe and reliable, the impacts of accidental factors of extreme positions are small, the recognition accuracy is high, and the method can be applicable to exoskeleton robots and tail-end traction robots.