Patent ID: 8096592

Claim:
An actuator, comprising: a housing; a first lever, pivotally mounted to the housing; a second lever, pivotally mounted to the housing, wherein the first and second levers are rotatable about a common axis; a link pin, slidably mounted to the housing; a pair of spaced-apart selectively contractible wires, each of the pair of selectively contractible wires connected to the link pin and the housing, and operable to slide the link pin in one of two directions; and where sliding the link pin in a first direction kinematically couples the first and second levers and where sliding the link pin in a second direction kinematically decouples the first and second levers, wherein the link pin includes a locking pin that rotates about the common axis, wherein sliding the link pin in the first direction kinematically couples the locking pin with both the first and second levers.