Patent ID: 7408288

Claim:
A driving apparatus, comprising: an actuator that includes an electro-mechanical transducer, a driving member which is fastened to the electro-mechanical transducer and displaces together with the transducer, and a driven member which is friction-bonded to the driving member, and is driven at a driving frequency; a speed determining unit that determines whether a moving speed of the driven member with respect to the driving member is lower than a predetermined speed; a frequency setting unit that, when the speed determining unit determines that the moving speed is lower than the predetermined speed, sets a frequency which can make the actuator generate a resonance phenomenon as the driving frequency for the actuator; and a driving unit that, when the speed determining unit determines that the moving speed is lower than the predetermined speed, reciprocally drives the actuator using a driving signal with the frequency set by the frequency setting unit by applying a forward driving signal for driving the driven member in a normal direction followed by a backward driving signal for driving the driven member in an opposite direction.