The disclosure relates to a drive means for non-resonant linear and/or rotary positioning of an object, comprising at least two piezoelectric or electrostrictive actuator groups, where-in a first actuator group moves a first runner portion relative to a stationary base of the drive means according to the principle of an inertia drive, and by means of the second actuator group a second runner portion is moved relative to the first runner portion with a limited range of movement in the high-resolution scan mode, wherein a common electrical control signal is applied to the first and second actuator groups.

An optical system is provided. The optical system includes a first optical module. The first optical module includes a fixed portion, a movable portion, a driving assembly, and a circuit assembly. The movable portion is movably connected to the fixed portion, and the movable portion is used to connect to an optical element. The driving assembly is used to drive the movable portion to move relative to the fixed portion. The circuit assembly is electrically connected to the driving assembly.

A control apparatus for a vibration-type actuator which improves acceleration performance and deceleration performance in driving the vibration-type actuator. The vibration-type actuator moves a vibrating body and a driven body relatively to each other. A vibration state of the vibrating body is detected based on a vibrating voltage or driving current generated in response to vibrations of the vibrating body. A relative speed of the vibrating body and the driven body is detected, and based on the detected vibration state and the detected relative speed, the vibration state of the vibrating body is controlled.

A vibration wave motor includes an element configured to be displaced by application of voltage, and an annular elastic body having a bottom surface coming into contact with the element and a drive surface having a groove, configured to drive a moving element by a vibration wave produced on the drive surface by displacement of the element. The element has a density of 4.2 to 6.010.sup.3 kg/m.sup.3. 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 bottom surface, and W represents a radial width of the elastic body.

There is provided a control method for a piezoelectric driving device including a vibrating body including a piezoelectric element for driving and configured to vibrate when a driving signal is applied to the piezoelectric element for driving, a section to be driven that is driven by the vibration of the vibrating body, and a driving-signal generating section configured to generate the driving signal using a pulse signal generated based on a target pulse duty ratio. When the target pulse duty ratio is smaller than a predetermined value, the driving signal generated by the driving-signal generating section is an intermittently generated periodic signal.

A driving device includes a plurality of vibrating bodies including transmitting sections configured to transmit vibration to a driven section and a control section configured to change vibration tracks of the transmitting sections of at least a pair of the vibrating bodies independently from one another. When a direction in which the driven section and the vibrating bodies are arranged is represented as a first direction and a direction orthogonal to the first direction is represented as a second direction, at least the two vibrating bodies have a plurality of vibration modes in which amplitudes in at least one of the first direction and the second direction of the transmitting sections are different, and the control section drives the at least two vibrating bodies in any one vibration mode among the plurality of vibration modes.

A vibration actuator that is capable of reducing difference of vibration velocities when a contact member is driven using a plurality of vibrators. The vibration actuator includes a vibrator device and a contact member that moves relative to the vibrator device. The vibrator device includes a plurality of vibrators that are connected in series, and a plurality of inductors that are connected in parallel to the respective vibrators.

A control method of a piezoelectric driving device which includes a vibrator including a piezoelectric element and vibrating by application of a drive signal to the piezoelectric element, a driven unit moving by the vibration of the vibrator, a drive signal generation unit generating the drive signal based on a pulse signal, the control method including: stopping the application of the drive signal to the piezoelectric element at the time when a driving speed of the driven unit is a reference speed, in a case of stopping driving of the driven unit.

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 drive device for a vibration actuator, which makes it possible to perform low-speed and stable driving and expand a dynamic range of driving speed, includes first and second switching circuits, a position detection sensor, and a microprocessing unit (MPU). The first switching circuit and the second switching circuit apply a first drive signal and a second drive signal, for exciting vibration, to an electromechanical energy conversion element of a vibrating body. The position detection sensor acquires information on a relative position between the vibrating body and a driven body in press contact with each other. The MPU switches the first and second drive signals to third drive and fourth drive signals, respectively, based on the acquired information, to thereby change a position at which a highest one of peaks of amplitude of vibration excited in the vibrating body is formed.