Inverse Kinematics of China Space Station Experimental Module Manipulator

SSRMS refers to a Space Station Remote Manipulator System. The robotic arm of the Wentian module can complete tasks such as supporting astronauts’ extravehicular activities, installing and maintaining payloads, and inspecting the space station. The seven-joint SSRMS manipulator is critical for space missions. This study aims to build its kinematic model via screw theory. It simplifies SSRMS to right-angle rods, defines joint screw axes, twist coordinates, and initial pose matrix. Using the PoE (Product of Exponentials) formula, the 7-DOF forward kinematics equation is derived. In addition, it derives fixed joint angle for inverse kinematics, including analytical solutions and numerical solutions. It elaborates analytical solutions for fixing joints 1/7 and 2/6 and numerical solutions for fixing joints 3/4/5, solves all joint angles via kinematic decoupling, and addresses special cases. Experiments with China’s space station small arm parameters show the probability of meeting the accuracy threshold 10−4 is 99.79%, verifying model effectiveness, while noting singularity-related weak solving areas. This provides a reliable basis for subsequent inverse kinematics optimization.