Abstract: Aiming at the problems of chemical weeding in orchards, such as the destruction of soil ecosystems, the impact on the health of fruit trees and the quality of fruits, the easy development of herbicide resistance in weeds due to long-term use, and the serious constraints on the sustainable development of orchards, this study proposes a front-mounted orchard weeding robot suitable for mechanical weeding in orchards. Combining the orchard working environment and the requirements of grass cutting operations, an extended-range hybrid power drive system, a crawler walking system, and an overload protection system for the weeding motor were designed. Through kinematic and dynamic analysis, the parameters of the cutting knife were optimized to improve the cutting efficiency and stability. Using virtual prototyping technology and the EDEM discrete element method, a multi-phase coupling simulation model of weeds, soil, and cutting tools based on the Bonding V2 bonded particle model was constructed. The Design Expert software was used to design a three-factor three-level orthogonal experiment, and combined with response surface optimization analysis, the effects of different blade arrangements, cutting knife speeds, and knife shaft heights and their interactions on the missed cutting rate were explored, and a missed cutting rate regression model was established. The simulation results show that when the blades are arranged in a double helix, the speed is 2286.246 r/min, and the height of the cutting knife shaft is 189.823 mm, the weeding effect is optimal, and the predicted missed cutting rate by simulation is only 4.154%. Field experiments were conducted to verify the effectiveness of the design and the simulation optimization results. Under the optimized parameter combination, the actual missed cutting rate of the robot was 4.77%, close to the simulation prediction value; the stability coefficient of the cutting height was greater than 90%, and the average utilization coefficient of the cutting width was higher than 90%. The front-mounted orchard weeding robot adopts a Y-shaped flinging knife cutting method, which causes less soil disturbance and effectively protects the surface structure; it has an intelligent overload protection function for the weeding motor, effectively reducing the probability of motor failure due to overload; the crawler chassis is suitable for complex terrain, and the extended-range system ensures a working time of 8 to 12 hours. It performs excellently in terms of working performance and weeding efficiency. It provides an efficient and environmentally friendly mechanical solution to the problem of chemical weeding in orchards, and the research results can provide theoretical support for the further optimization and application of orchard weeding equipment.