Electrically-activated hood latch and release mechanism

A latch assembly for a vehicle, the latch assembly comprising:

• one or more housing members configured to be fixedly attached to the vehicle;
• a latch movable between a released position and a restrained position;
• a latch spring operatively attached to said latch and configured to bias said latch toward said released position;
• a first lever mounted to the one or more housing members with respect to said latch, said first lever movable between an open position and a closed position, wherein said released position of said latch corresponds to said open position of said first lever and said restrained position of said latch corresponds to said closed position of said first lever and said closed position of said first lever does not allow said latch to move from said released position to said restrained position;
• a first lever spring operatively attached to said first lever and configured to bias said first lever toward said closed position;
• a second lever mounted to the one or more housing members with respect to said first lever and movable between an unlocked and a locked position, wherein said unlocked position of said second lever corresponds to said open position of said first lever and said locked position of said second lever prevents movement of said first lever from said closed position to said open position;
• a second lever spring operatively attached to said second lever and configured to bias said second lever toward said locked position;
• a shape memory material based actuator operatively connected to said second lever and configured to selectively move said second lever from said locked position to said unlocked position in the presence of an activation signal;
• and
• a primary activation mechanism operatively connected to a power system of the vehicle and configured to selectively produce said activation signal.