Patent ID: 7070226

Claim:
A powered closure drive mechanism for a vehicle, comprising: a controllable strut mountable between a frame of a vehicle and a closure pivotally connected to the frame, said strut having opposite ends moveable in opposite directions toward and away from one another, said strut having a lock which, when in a locking condition, substantially prevents movement of the opposite ends of said strut relative to one another, and, when said lock is in a releasing condition, allows movement of the opposite ends of said strut relative to one another, the opposite ends of said strut being biased when said lock is in the releasing condition to move away from one another, an angular orientation of said strut being adjustable between orientations in which the bias of the strut overcomes a weight of the closure so as to move the closure in an opening direction, and orientations in which the weight of the closure overcomes the bias of the strut so as to move the closure in a closing direction; a motor assembly operatively coupled with said strut so as to adjust the angular orientation of the strut by moving one of said opposite ends and, thereby, to effect opening and closing movement of the closure; a dynamic property detector that detects one or more dynamic properties of the closure; and a controller operatively coupled to said motor, said lock, and said dynamic property detector, said controller controlling said motor and said lock based, at least in part, upon said one or more dynamic properties detected by said dynamic property detector.