Aiming at the problems such as the limited application scenarios commonly existing in the automatic white balance algorithm (Auto White Balance, AWB), and taking into account factors such as real-time hardware processing, an adaptive automatic white balance algorithm is proposed and implemented in hardware using a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Firstly, the histograms of different color channels of the color image are statistically analyzed. Then, the similarity of histogram patterns among channels is determined by utilizing the histograms of different color channels, and based on this, an adaptive histogram adjustment algorithm is employed for white balance correction of different color images. Experimental results demonstrate that this algorithm exhibits superior adaptability and yields favorable processing effects for images rich in colors and those containing large area color blocks. Both subjective and objective evaluations have improved compared to single algorithms, and it is capable of real-time processing of images with a resolution of 1280*720@30fps on embedded devices, presenting excellent prospects for engineering applications.