The invention discloses a container identification and positioning method combining a GPS\INS. The method comprises the following steps of calibrating a laser radar and a GPS\INS module; scanning thewhole container yard environment by the laser radar, and modeling the yard environment according to GPS data and point cloud data; dividing the yard model according to container height information toobtain a plurality of sub-point clouds; clustering each sub-point cloud by using the Euclidean distance and the point cloud normal vector as a criterion; and projecting, segmenting and matching various clusters by using the prior container size information, and obtaining scanning and positioning information of the containers in the yard environment by combining GPS data. Through the method disclosed by the invention, the container in the port environment and absolute positioning information of the container can be provided, thereby providing necessary basis for realizing the operations of automatic task scheduling, automatic container grabbing and the like at the port.