Actuator for a vehicle compartment

A glove compartment comprising

• a glove box adapted to be coupled to a vehicle in a fixed position relative to the vehicle, the glove box including a container formed to include an aperture arranged to open into a space formed in the container and a lid coupled to the container to move relative to the container between a closed position in which the lid closes the aperture and blocks access to the space and an opened position in which the lid has moved away from the container to allow access to the space through the aperture,
• a latch coupled to the container to change between a locked configuration in which movement of the lid from the closed position is blocked and an unlocked configuration in which movement of the lid from the closed position is permitted, the latch including a first lock unit coupled to the container to move relative to the container, a second lock unit coupled to the container to move relative to the container, and a lock-unit transmission arranged to extend between and interconnect the first lock unit and the second lock unit to cause movement of the first lock unit to be transmitted to the second lock unit, the first and second lock units move away from one another when the latch is in the unlocked configuration and move toward one another when the latch is in the locked configuration, and
• an actuator coupled to the latch to cause the latch change between the locked and unlocked configurations in response to an input,
• wherein the actuator includes a shape-memory alloy wire coupled to the first lock unit to cause the first lock unit and second lock unit to move in response to changes in length of the shape-memory alloy wire between a first length associated with the locked configuration and a relatively smaller second length associated with the unlocked arrangement and a control system coupled to the shape-memory alloy wire and configured to apply power to the shape-memory alloy wire to cause the shape-memory alloy wire to change between the first and second lengths in response to receipt of the input to the control system.