Disclosed herein are a cleaning robot in which light emitting portions emitting infrared rays are installed to face forward, sideward, and upward and infrared rays which are reflected by obstacles and return are received by one light receiving module to sense obstacles to prevent an increase in manufacturing cost caused by installing a plurality of light receiving portions and simultaneously to sense obstacles located above and a method of controlling the cleaning robot. The cleaning robot including a body and a driving portion which moves the body includes at least one light emitting portion which emits light to an obstacle, a light receiving module which obtains an image signal of the obstacle by receiving the light reflected by the obstacle, and a control portion which generates obstacle sensing information based on a position of the image signal obtained by the light receiving module and controls the driving portion based on the generated obstacle sensing information. Here, the light emitting portion is installed to emit light forward, sideward, and upward from the body and to allow the light reflected by the obstacle to be received by the light receiving module, thereby sensing obstacles located forward, sideward, and above from the body.