Patent ID: 8148670

Claim:
A locking mechanism, comprising: a housing; a rotary actuator carried by the housing, the rotary actuator having a shaft and armature disposed around at least a portion of the shaft, the armature configured to rotate the shaft about a longitudinal axis of the shaft; a cam carried by the shaft; a set of locking balls disposed between the cam and the housing; and a locking assembly carried by the housing, the locking assembly being axially positionable between a locked position relative to the housing and a released position relative to the housing; the rotary actuator configured to rotate the cam between (i) a first position to maintain the set of balls in a locked state relative to the housing and the cam and to maintain the locking assembly in the locked position and (ii) a second position to position the set of balls to a released state relative to the housing and the cam and to position the locking assembly to the released position; wherein the locking assembly comprises a lock shaft portion disposed within the housing and a head portion disposed external to the housing, the head portion defining set of slots constructed and arranged to capture deployment elements, each slot of the set of slots defining a first width slot portion and a second width slot portion, the first width slot portion being smaller than the second width slot portion, wherein the deployment elements are (i) in the first width slot portions of the set of slots when the locking assembly is in the locked position, and (ii) in the second width slot portions of the set of slots when the locking assembly is in the released position.