The invention provides a real-time detection method of a weld bead pose for complex curved surface welding, and belongs to the technical field of welding automation. The method comprises the steps that a clear thin-gap weld bead image is obtained by using a surface light source, and the position of a center line of the weld bead is extracted; a spot pattern is adopted as a laser source with multiple closed curves to illuminate the weld bead, one point on the center line of the weld bead is determined as the center point of the weld bead of to-be-detected pose according to the center line of the weld bead and the image feature of the laser spot, the coordinate of each point of the laser spot in the neighborhood of the center point of the weld bead is determined in a visual sensor coordinatesystem based on an optical triangulation method, and the pose of a welding gun corresponding to the local zone where the center point of the weld bead is located is obtained by fitting. The real-timedetection method of the weld bead pose for complex curved surface welding has the advantages that the characteristic that the features of the thin-gap weld bead are obvious under the surface light source and the advantage that the information content of the laser spot with the multiple closed curves is large are used, it is ensured that area of the local zone of the weld bead adopted during the pose detection is matched with an actual welding requirement, the method can be applied to the automatic welding of parts with complex curved surfaces in the field of aerospace, and is especially suitable for automatic tracking situations of the weld bead with small groove gap.