This project designs a data glove for real-time control of a robotic arm for the laparoscopic surgical manipulator. The inertial measurement unit and rocker potentiometer are used to collect hand posture information. Based on the inverse kinematics method, the mapping relationship between the human hands and surgical robotic arm joints was established to control the action of surgical robotic arm grasping forceps and realize routine surgical operations. The experimental results show that the system is easy to operate, has good real-time performance (mean response time is 530 ms), which has reference value for the research and development of data glove-controlled surgical robotic arms.