  The design of compliant mechanisms is crucial in several technologies and
relies on the availability of solutions for nonlinear structural problems. One
of these solutions is given and experimentally validated in the present article
for a compliant mechanism moving along a smooth curved profile. In particular,
a deformable elastic rod is held by two clamps, one at each end. The first
clamp is constrained to slide without friction along a curved profile, while
the second clamp moves in a straight line transmitting its motion through the
elastic rod to the first clamp. For this system it is shown that the clamp
sliding on the profile imposes nontrivial boundary conditions (derived via a
variational and an asymptotic approach), which strongly influence buckling and
nonlinear structural behaviour. Investigation of this behaviour shows that a
compliant mechanism can be designed, which gives an almost neutral response in
compression. This behavior could easily be exploited to make a force limiting
device. Finally a proof-of-concept device was constructed and tested showing
that the analyzed mechanical system can be realized in practice and it behaves
tightly to the model, so that it can now be used in the design of machines that
use compliant mechanisms.
