The wheel loader multi-rod mechanism working device, which can be considered as a rigid multibody system, is a crucial component for shoveling and loading material. The six-rod and eight-rod mechanisms are two popular working devices used in construction, mining and agriculture. However, the design of the eight-rod mechanism device has not received much more attention due to its emerging applications. In this paper, a fuzzy set based multi-objective optimization procedure for an eight-rod mechanism device is presented by taking advantage of design sensitivities. The sensitivity analysis is carried out to extract the several most relevant design variables so as to simplify the optimization problem. Furthermore, the fuzzy set theory is introduced to express each objective in terms of membership function, thus different objectives can be measured in the same dimension. As a result, the multi-objective optimization problem is converted into a single objective through the combined membership function. Finally, an eight-rod mechanism working device of a wheel loader is analyzed and optimized by using the proposed method. The results show that the optimal eight-rod mechanism can provide a better kinematic performance.
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