Patent ID: 7650752

Claim:
A drive apparatus for driving an actuator having two shape memory alloys connected in a push-pull arrangement to a movable part to give a displacement to said movable part on the basis of a displacement target value, comprising: (a) a feeder configured to feed current to a shape memory alloy to be heated on the basis of a drive current signal, thereby making said shape memory alloy perform a regaining operation towards a memorized shape to interlock with said displacement of said movable part; and (b) a controller configured to generate a first drive current signal based on said displacement target value for one of said two shape memory alloys which performs said regaining operation and feed a first drive current based on said first drive current signal to said one of said two shape memory alloys, said controller further configured to generate a second drive current signal for another shape memory alloy which does not perform said regaining operation and feed a second drive current based on said second drive current signal to said other shape memory alloy as a bias current while passing said first drive current.