Those works of aquaculture, such as cleaning aquatic weed, feeding, and increasing the oxygen content in the water body and so on were tedious and burdensome. Chinas aging population led to labor tensions, high labor costs. In order to solve the employment problem of the aquaculture industry, reduce labor costs and improve labor efficiency, a universal water surface operating platform for the aquaculture industryunmanned navigation paddlewheel vehicle was proposed. The characteristics of the boat motion were analyzed; the method for calculating the paddlewheel driving force was gave according to the hydrodynamic theory and Newtons law, which overcame larger error by using the old original formula. The hydrodynamic equations of the paddlewheel vehicle were constructed, based on the characteristics of paddle vehicle movement and Fossen’s theory of ship motion model, and then was simulated by computer and experimented by experimental boat. With an installed highprecision GPS equipments and communications equipment on the experimental boat, sailing trajectory data was measured and recorded. Boat was set at speed of 0.4m/s, the left paddle of 60r/min, and the right paddle of 40r/min conditions, turning diameter measured by the GPS device was 3.2m. The results of simulation and experiment show that the paddlewheel could make the boat realize ahead and turning motion and the boat has better mobility at low speed, the paddlewheel vehicle is very suitable for aquaculture. Digital model provided a way for the study of paddlewheel vehicle motion control and system design, optimization in the future.