In order to solve the problem of picking up golf ball, tennis, table tennis and other small ball objects in the training ground, a kind of 5-DOF pickup robot manipulator was designed. D-H method was used to establish the coordinate system and parameter table of the manipulator.The posture model of the manipulator’〖KG-*2〗s end coordinate system was derived and the robot inverse kinematics was solved.The forward kinematics was used to analyze the working space of the manipulator.It is confirmed that the working space satisfies the target area of the ball object.The virtual prototype was established and the picking position and setting position of target were selected.According to the inverse kinematics solution, corresponding drive function was set for each joint to perform simulation verification. The results show that the manipulator works in the working space, motion law is reasonable, the inverse kinematics solution is correct, and it can complete ballpicking tasks.