Patent ID: 7602098

Claim:
A method for driving an ion conducting actuator which includes a substrate made of a polymer material containing ions and/or polar molecules which are movable according to an electric field, and facing electrodes for generating the electric field, on a surface of the substrate, and which deforms a shape of the substrate to a desired shape by distributing unevenly the ions or the polar molecules in the substrate by applying a voltage to the facing electrodes, and maintains a deformed shape of the substrate for a predetermined time, comprising: applying to the ion conducting actuator a drive voltage which differs during a shape-maintained time and during a deformation-start time, wherein the shape-maintained time for which a shape of the substrate is maintained substantially and the deformation-start time which is before the shape-maintained time, and during which, the shape of the substrate is deformed from an arbitrary shape to a desired shape, together form a deformation state of the ion conducting actuator.