Patent ID: 8198786

Claim:
A method of driving an inertial driving actuator, the actuator including: a fixing member; a moving element that is fixed to the fixing member and that generates a small displacement by extension and contraction; a driver to drive the moving element an oscillation substrate that is fixed to the moving element and is moved linearly reciprocally by the small displacement; a moving body that is movably located on the oscillation substrate; a first electrode formed on a surface of the moving body that faces the oscillation substrate; a second electrode formed on a surface of the oscillation substrate that faces the moving body; a frictional force controller to control a frictional force between the oscillation substrate and the moving body; and the method comprising: adhering the moving body to the oscillation substrate; moving the oscillation substrate in a first direction, so as to move the moving body while being adhered to the oscillation substrate in the first direction with respect to the fixing member; releasing an attracting force acting between the oscillation substrate and the moving body; and subsequent to the releasing, moving the oscillation substrate in a second direction opposite to the first direction while the attraction force acting between the oscillation substrate and moving body is released, so as to move the moving body by its inertia in the first direction with respect to both the oscillation substrate and the fixing member.