Design and Verification of a Modular Reconfigurable Test Platform for Electric Tractors

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This paper discusses a test bed for electric tractors. As such it gives a valuable presentation.  Some points of interest:

1. Discussion of the symbols on the bus of Figure 3 would be helpful
2. Under Fig. 2 it mentions 3 load motors, one being PTO, but only one load motor is shown in Fig. 3
3. Similarly in Fig. 4 upper right insert there are 8 modes but Fig. 1 has 17?
4. How does one see the cubic in Fig. 8?
5. The English should be checked throughout by a technical English editor.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper present a design and of a test platform for electric tractors. The paper is interesting and present a real test bench including prectical implementations aspects.

In the last years several papers dealing with thractor electrifications have been published. A recent overview can be found, for example here: https://doi.org/10.3390/en13092197

Author should consider to improve the state of the art about this topic in the paper introduction

Author Response

Point 1:  Author should consider to improve the state of the art about this topic in the paper introduction

Response 1: Thank you for your suggestion, we have rewritten the Introduction in the manuscript following your comment.

Reviewer 3 Report

1) Language and grammar needs to be improved.

2) Introduction, Section 5 - "In addition, different from the on-road vehicles, simulation methods alone are not good enough to study and verify the characteristics of tractors." Please provide reasoning and experimental evidence for this claim

3) Figure 2. shows the schematics of the test platform showing the power split-coupling device which appears to be the central element which will allow the reconfigurability of the test rig, yet no data is provided on the structure of the test rig. Please provide more detailed information on the structure of this subsystem.

4) Conclusion section, Section 1 - "In this paper, a reconfigurable test bench for electric tractors is innovatively proposed according to the analysis results of powertrain topology, and a series hybrid electric tractor with a dual-motor independent drive system is selected to conduct the rotary tillage experiment, thereby validating the reconfigurability of the test platform." Single scenario cannot demonstrate that the machine is suitable for different scenarios. Please provide more detailed information which will show that the system can operate in different configurations.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Language can be improved. Please, consult appropriate language services.

Author Response

Thank you for your suggestion. We have improved English language. All changes are easily visible by using the "Track Changes" function in Microsoft Word. Please see the manuscript.