In order to cope with Ad hoc networks consisting of smart mobile communication devices that support rich media applications with Internet connectivity，a novel context-aware energy-efficient routing (CAER) algo-rithm is proposed． The algorithm introduces a context-aware self-learning solution to monitor context information in the operation process of devices，calculates energy utility imposed by various applications in nodes，and then syn-thetically utilizes the context information containing application-related energy utility，remaining energy and signal strength to make routing decisions in an adaptive way． By using this algorithm，energy is saved for mobile nodes with limited resources． Simulated results show that，in comparison with some routing protocols，CAER performs more effectively on the energy efficiency and lifetime of network，and reduces the delay overhead of network at the same time．