System and method for detecting the presence and type of capacitive load that may be coupled to a power driver. The system includes a detection circuit to determine the presence and type of load based on a measured characteristic of the load in response to a drive voltage. The characteristic may be the load capacitance as measured by the current flow between the driver and load. The circuit may include a differential amplifier to generate a current-related voltage, comparators to generate pulses when the voltage exceeds respective thresholds, registers to output logic levels in response to the comparators, and a microcontroller to make the determination based on the logic levels. Alternatively, the circuit includes a differential amplifier to generate a current-related voltage, a rectifier to rectify the voltage, a peak and hold circuit to hold the peak voltage, an ADC to digitize the peak voltage, and a microcontroller to make its determination based on the digitized voltage.

A driving apparatus includes: first vibration detection means and second vibration detection means for detecting vibrations of a vibrating body of a vibration-type actuator independently of each other; timing setting means for setting a timing of detection by the second vibration detection means on a basis of a first output signal of the first vibration detection means; sampling means for acquiring a sign-affixed vibration amount by sampling a second output signal of the second vibration detection means at the timing set by the timing setting means; and an arithmetic operation means for calculating a vibration vector in a direction of movement of a moving body of the vibration-type actuator on a basis of the sign-affixed vibration amount acquired by the sampling means.

A driving apparatus of a vibration-type actuator includes a driving circuit configured to drive a vibration unit including a plurality of vibrators, a detection unit configured to detect a sum of power consumption consumed by the plurality of vibrators, and a driving frequency setting unit configured to set a driving frequency within a frequency range depending on the sum of power consumption detected by the detection unit.

A vibration type driving apparatus includes a first vibrator including an electro-mechanical energy conversion element and configured to be in pressure contact with a driven member, a second vibrator including an electro-mechanical energy conversion element and configured to be in pressure contact with the driven member, and a first electric element connected in series with the second vibrator. The first vibrator is connected to a driving circuit, the second vibrator and the first electric element are connected in parallel with the first vibrator, the second vibrator is connected to the driving circuit via the first electric element, and a resonance frequency f of the first vibrator and a resonance frequency f2 of the second vibrator satisfy a relationship f1<f2.

A single hybrid motor of the present invention has a rotor, a first stator, a first torsional vibrator, a first longitudinal vibrator, a first template, and a first connecting element. One end of the first connecting element is connected with the rotor, the first torsional vibrator, the first longitudinal vibrator, the first template, the first elastic block and the second elastic block. The first elastic block is disposed between the rotor and the first torsional vibrator. The second elastic block is disposed between the first template and the first longitudinal vibrator. Adjusting the length of the first elastic block or/and the second elastic block allows the first torsional vibrator and the first longitudinal vibrator of the single hybrid motor to obtain a plurality of sets of resonance frequencies within a degeneracy range.

Embodiments provide an integrated actuator and pressure sensor with closed-loop feedback of capacitance, resulting in improved actuation performance and cost-effective form factor. The disclosed integrated piezoelectric ceramic actuator comprises a capacitance sensing unit, and a piezoelectric ceramic. It operates in either actuation mode or pressure sensing mode. During the actuation operation mode, the integrated actuator generates a first control signal based on the capacitance measured at the capacitance sensing unit. During the pressure sensing operation mode, the working parameters corresponding to pressure applied to the piezoelectric ceramic are determined based on the measured capacitances.

A piezoelectric element that can decrease the output voltage for detection relative to the input voltage for driving without requiring a step-down circuit between a detection phase electrode and a phase comparator and an oscillatory wave motor including the piezoelectric element are provided. A piezoelectric element includes a piezoelectric material having a first surface and a second surface, a common electrode disposed on the first surface, and a drive phase electrode and a detection phase electrode disposed on the second surface. An absolute value d(1) of a piezoelectric constant of the piezoelectric material in a portion (1) sandwiched between the drive phase electrode and the common electrode and an absolute value d(2) of a piezoelectric constant of the piezoelectric material in a portion (2) sandwiched between the detection phase electrode and the common electrode satisfy d(2)<d(1). An oscillatory wave motor includes this piezoelectric element.

A value obtained by adding an output of a speed feedforward calculation unit that uses a speed calculated from a change over time in an instruction value to a stage downstream from a feedback calculation unit that uses a positional deviation is used as a control amount, and at least one of an elliptic ratio of elliptical motion and a driving direction is controlled.

A control unit of a control apparatus for a vibration actuator is configured so that when the value of a speed deviation (first value) obtained by subtracting a current value from a command value related to the relative speed of a vibrating body and a contact body of the vibration actuator is positive at a certain time during acceleration of the vibration actuator, the control unit performs control to decrease a driving frequency of alternating-current signals or control to increase a pulse width of the alternating-current signals, and in a case where the value of the speed deviation (first value) is other than positive, the control unit performs control of the driving frequency of the alternating-current signals or control of the pulse width of the alternating-current signals that is performed at a time prior to the specific time.

A lens barrel includes an element displaced by application of voltage; an elastic body having a contact surface coming into contact with the element, a drive surface to produce a vibration wave by displacement of the element, and a plurality of grooves; a moving element come into contact with the drive surface and rotated by the vibration wave; an annular ring rotated by rotating of the moving element; and a lens moved in an optical axis direction by rotating of the annular ring; wherein the element mainly contains a material having potassium sodium niobate, potassium niobate, sodium niobate, or barium titanate, wherein a value of [(T/B)W] is in a range of 0.84 to 1.94, where T represents a depth of the groove, B represents a distance from a bottom part of the groove to the contact surface, and W represents a radial width of the elastic body.