Abstract:In view of the complex topographic features of the southern hilly orchard and tea garden,a wheeled transporter driven by hub motor for hilly orchard and tea garden was designed on the basis of a centralized motor-driven transport vehicle. The transporter uses 36 V lead-acid batteries as its energy source,adopts dual rear-wheel independent drive and has an electronic differential steering system. The performance of key indicators of the transporter including the maximum gradeability,the driving range,the differential speed and the braking was investigated. The results showed that the maximum climbing degree of the transporter was 15° with full load. The minimum radius of turning was 2 395 mm. The average mileage of the transporter at the normal speed of 20 km/h under no-load and full-load conditions reached 66.97 km and 46.33 km. The emergent braking distance of the transporter at an initial speed of 25 km/h,20 km/h,15 km/h,and 10 km/h under full-load condition was 5.83 m,4.11 m,2.68 m,1.57 m. The maximum relative error between the experimental value and the theoretical value was 8.2%. The differential steering performance of transporter was good as well.