a preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in fig1 which discloses a monolithic module integrating all the active elements . the monolithic module can be described in terms of a larger hexagonal mechanically passive part 1 and active elements 2 , which are integral parts of the module . therefore none of the parts shown in fig1 are possible to dismount , since they together form the monolithic module . the active elements 2 are arranged to be in contact with , or at least in the vicinity of the surface of the body which is supposed to be moved relative to the module ( not shown in the figure ). each element 2 consists of an electromechanical material , preferably piezoelectric , which typically is a multilayered structure . an electromechanical material responds to a certain electrical field applied across it . in order to have a large shape change upon applying the voltage , the electrical field in each portion of the material has to be high . for a non - layered material , a single voltage has to be applied across the whole structure , why the requested voltages have to be very high . one of the advantages with a layered structure is that the necessary voltages to achieve a particular electrical field becomes lower , which is desired for the matching of the structure with , e . g ., the drive electronics . this is accomplished by introducing electrode and earth layers within the material . upon supplying a relatively low voltage to each electrode , the local electrical field can still be high enough for a large shape change . a possible configuration of such a layered structure is shown in the upper part of fig1 where an enlarged sketch of one of the elements is shown . electrical contacts 17 i - 17 vi are connected to electrodes 16 i - 16 vi and a ground contact 17 o with ground layers 16 o in between the electromechanical layers in the figure . the electromechanical layers in the figure are drawn as a transparent volume for the sake of clarity , even though the electromechanical material in reality not being transparent . the whole piece shown in the enlarged picture , including the electrodes , contacting etc . are integral parts of the entire monolithic module . with the above described configuration of the active elements 2 , each active element 2 can be forced to move in three independent directions . by applying the same voltage to all electrodes 17 i - 17 vi , the entire active element 2 elongates its height , i . e ., the contact point against the body to be moved is moved upwards . by , for instance , applying a voltage to the electrodes 17 i and 17 ii , the corresponding portion of the electromechanical material will try to elongate in height , while the other portions are unchanged . in the figure , this situation will result in a tilting of the active element 2 inwards , thus moving the contact point inwards and somewhat upwards . similarly , by applying a voltage to the electrodes 17 ii - 17 iv , the active element 2 is forced to bend to the left side in fig1 . by combining such movements , the contact point of the active element 2 can be forced to move in an arbitrary direction , within certain limits . thus , the use of electrode arrangements such as illustrated in fig1 allows the element top surface to move arbitrarily in space relative to the substrate . if there are at least two independent sets of active element , arranged for instance as a and b in fig1 then the module can easily be used with an non - resonance step technique type of motor . one example of such a motion is a rotational one . assume a body to be moved is placed on top of the active elements 2 , having one contact point for each element 2 when not active . the stepping cycle starts with elongating the active elements of set a , whereby only the three contact points with a elements remain . then the set a elements are activated in such a way that they all are bent in parallel to the closest edge of the hexagonal passive part 1 . the moving body will then rotate a small angle around an axis going through the center of the module . the set b elements are put in contact with the moving body and the set a is contracted and straightened . the cycle then continues by bending the b set , and so on . a linear motion may also be accomplished by instead bending the sets of elements in a certain direction . it is easily understood that any arbitrary motion within the plane of the active elements may be acheived in this way . in the above examples , the elements are assumed to be driven by constant voltage pulses , but typically in reality all elements are driven with sinusoidal voltages to achieve an elliptical motion of the element contact point relative to the substrate . the two sets a and b are then typically rotating about 180 degrees out of phase . for each element there are at least two phases and a simple arrangement in fig1 would be to drive electrodes i and vi with one sinusoidal wave and iii and iv with another . these should be phase shifted about 90 degrees to obtain a suitable elliptical motion of the contact point . there are of course numerous ways to arrange the electrodes in the active elements and to apply voltages to the contacts in order to achieve a motion according to the non - resonance step technique . the actual electronics may be constructed according to conventional methods and will not be further discussed in this application . it is also desirable to integrate the control electronics generating the phase shifted voltages as well as various sensor ( e . g . force and position ) feed - back and communication electronics into the integrated module or attached thereto . in such a way a specially taylored electromechanical actuator module may be available as one monolithicpiece . the actuator according to an embodiment of the present invention is advantageously used for medical instruments of catheter type . assuming that control and communication electronics are integrated within ( or mounted on ) the module , an arrangement such as shown , e . g ., in fig2 solves previous problems . the arrangement comprises a number of modules according to the present invention , where the whole module 1 has a wedge shape , typically with the back side 3 tilted . the wedge shape could be either the module itself or a separate unit , free or mounted on the module . it is also convenient to use an elastic material or an elastic structure ( e . g . spring type of geometry ) in - between or as the wedge shaped unit . a number of different movement modes are easily obtainable by such an arrangement . if the modules are rotated relative to each other , a tilting action of the total arrangement results . this means that a rotational movement of one of the modules will convey the above arranged modules along circular paths , the radius of which in relation to the distance to the rotating module will correspond to the wedge angle . a clarifying example is the case where the arrangement above the rotating module is linear . in such a case the upper part of the arrangement will follow the surface of a cone . two modules operating together can create rotation without tilting . this is obtained by arranging the two wedges in oposite directions , so that the wedge angles compensate each other . in such a way a rotational movement may be transferred further in the arrangement of fig2 . one possible solution for assembly of such a system would be to enclose the modules including the wedges into a bellow - shaped tube 4 . the tube is creating the normal force in - between the many modules . at the same time it serves as a protective envelope and electrical connection . all modules could be connected to a serial communication bus ( e . g . 2 - 4 electrical wires ) to reduce the number of electrical connections between the modules . another elegant catheter design is to use modules with a spherical contact surface , as illustrated in fig3 . the spherical contact surface 5 makes it possible to rotate each module relative to the next without any tilting . it is also possible to tilt each individual module in any direction if three - axial active elements are used . this corresponds to the linear motion described in connection with fig1 . the catheter will be more flexible in comparison to the previous design , fig2 . however , the wedge shaped design is much easier to manufacture , which might be an advantage in some applications . there is also a desire to transport for instance liquids in and out through the catheter working end . this could be achieved with a tube 6 in the centre of the modules , fig3 . a peristaltic type of liquid transport may be obtained if two tube constrictions 7 , separated by a certain distance , are moving together . constrictions can be made by tube rotation or stretching using the modules . by moving the individual modules according to a certain scheme it is possible to move such constrictions along the arrangement , and if both constrictions are moved together , the volume enclosed in - between , will be brought through the center of the arrangement . among the high performance applications are , e . g ., linear motion in fast , high precision equipment . one such design is shown in fig4 . it consists of three modules assembled into a stator structure 8 . the stator structure has a geometry that creates a radial force against the rotor 10 by spring type elements 9 . if the active elements in the module are made for three - axial motion as indicated in the figure , then both axial motion and rotation of the rotor can be achieved . as seen in the enlarged module , the four active elements are divided into two sets . this is also done for the two other modules of the motor . these two sets of active elements forms gripping claws in analogy with the non - resonance step principle motion , in analogy with the description of fig1 . if the active elements in each set are bent in a tangential direction during operation , the resulting motion of the rotor will be a rotation . if the active elements in each set are bent in an axial direction during operation , the resulting motion of the rotor will be a axial translation . of course , these two motion modes may be combined simultaneously , by letting the active elements in the modules bend in a direction between the two pure motion cases . a simple rotating motor can be constructed in an analogous way using two spring loaded structures similar to those of fig1 with a rotor in the middle . in the simplest version the contact points ot two monolithic modules are pressed with a clamping spring structure against either side of a planar rotor disc . if a hole is , e . g ., drilled through the monolithic module , the rotor shaft connected to the rotor disc could go orthogonally to the module in the centre . a body to be moved by the module is actually moved by a friction type of force . to acheive such a force , some kind of normal force towards the module is necessary . the normal force necessary to create motion in between the stator and rotor , i . e between a module and the body to be moved in relation to the module , can be acheived in many ways . all types of forces can be used : gravitation , magnetic , electrostatic , molecular , atomic , viscous forces . the elastic forces in springs are of course attractive for many applications but the use of permanent magnets might be one of the most cost - efficient methods . by elastic springs are understood all mechanical arrangements which presses the moving body against the modules . these “ springs ” normally constitute the surrounding encompassing material . they may , however , reqiure some amount of mounting effort , which may make such solutions less cost efficient . the motion range of each active element in the modules is an extremely important parameter . a large enough motion range in relation to the fabrication precision and accuracy is needed . while the element construction given in fig1 might be sufficient for certain motor sizes , some stroke magnification mechanism must be used when the motor is further miniaturised . in devices according to the state of the art some stroke magnification efforts are done , however , quite insufficient . the leverage structure 11 schematically presented in fig5 solves all these problems . it is a monolithic body consisting of arch - shaped structures arranged with two oppositely oriented arches 12 as a base unit . the arches are typically of electroactive material with layers of electrodes and connected in such a way that , for a given applied voltage , one arch increases its curvature and the other arch decreases its curvature . in that way the entire body will expand in the vertical direction and horizontal forces 14 will be compensated for . the horizontal forces are , e . g ., due to horizontal shape changes to accomplish the change of curvature . since one arch decreases its curvature and the other increases its curvature , the resulting forces will have opposite signs in the horizontal direction , and hence are compensated within each base unit . by intelligent distribution of the electrodes in the module three axial motion is acheived . for instance , the electrode areas in each arch could be divided in analogy with the active elements 2 in the monolithic module 1 and hence the central portion which is used for the transfer of force and displacement will be possible to move also in a horizontal direction . the volume in between the arches is either empty or filled with suitable elastic material . an elastic material such as a rubber will serve e . g . as a protection against overloading without a substantial loss of actuator performance . according to the present invention a method of fabrication of monolithic modules is disclosed . in this method there is of course a desire to directly form the monolithic module to its final shape , including internal voids or similar . in fig6 - 9 , some possible processing techniques to solve these problems are described . in fig6 rollers 18 with geometrical shapes 19 are used for replication of these shapes into a tape of electro - mechanical material 15 . an alternative to rollers is the use of the somewhat slower stamping process , which has the advantage of a cheaper tool fabrication . the shapes fabricated by the replication process are principally used for definition of electrode layers and connections between layers in the green state , i . e ., before heat treatment . other uses of the replication technique is as an aid for alignment , and to define void volumes , which is further described below . depending on the actual application , the tape may be covered with electrode layers 16 as shown in fig7 prior to the above described replication . if the tape is covered with electrode layers 16 , either on one or on both sides , the patterning of the electrodes can then be made directly by the rolling process , fig7 . the electrode layer is divided by plastic deformation of the tape resulting in separate electrode areas , as can be seen in fig1 . the electrode patterning on top of , e . g ., a polymer tape with piezoelectric grains is normally difficult by means of standard litographic techniques according to the state of the art , and the method according to the present invention solves this problem in an elegant way . electrical connection between the layers can also be made by forming holes 20 by plastic deformation of the tape . in fig7 the walls of the hole 20 are still covered with electrode material and an electric connection is formed between the two layers . alternatively , a hole formed in the above described way may be filled with electrically conducting paste . in this way electrical connections may be produced not only horizontally , but also vertically through the modules . another method for formation of electrical connections would be to use rolling , see fig8 folding , twisting etc . in combination with plastic deformation to achieve the desired electrical connection . in the manufacture of actuators based on electromechanical materials , one of the time consuming and overall limiting processing steps is the electrical connection between the layers . simple folding , where two different parallel layers are connected in the fold itself , solves this problem in certain applications since there will be no need for connections inbetween the layers . rolling and twisting of the polymer tape with electroactive material are other methods for formation of electrical connections inbetween different layers without forming holes . subsequent processing steps are to laminate these layers and by heat treatment produce a monolithic unit or module , methods known per se . these steps are therefore not further discussed in this disclosure . internal void volumes ( or suitable materials ) could be made by including layers with non - electroactive material . such layers may be introduced before or after the replication step as well as during the laminating step . by the replication , polymer volumes of different geometries are created . during heat - treatment , in particular the conventional introductional burnout heat treament , a polymer material would disappear , for instance . a void volume is thus possible to create by introducing a patterned polymer layer with aid of the replication technique . external friction layers , suitable at the top of the active elements of the module , etc . could be included in the same manner . since the outer parts of the active elements are the portions of the modules which are in mechanical contact with the moving body , these are the only parts of the modules , which are exposed to tribological effects . however , since the moving action is dependent on a certain friction , there has to be some sort of contact . one way to improve the resistance to wear etc . could then be to cover the outermost parts of the active elements with external friction layers . such layers are also easily introduced in the fabrication method according to the present invention , by adding one or several layers of wear resistant material on top of the final electromechanical layers . the friction layers are subsequently integrated into the module during the sintering process . one difficult step in the manufacturing process is the alignment of the different lamination layers prior to the heat treatments . since the allover accuracy has to be in the order of μm , a corresponding accuracy has to be obtained during the alignment process . alignment during lamination can be greatly simplified if particular alignment geometries 21 , e . g . peg in hole , also are replicated in the film . from fig9 it is seen that geometrical structures can assist in the alignment procedure . in fig9 certain geometrical edges on three layers in series are denoted by 21 a - 21 f . protruding edges , 21 a , 21 b and 21 e , correspond to recess edges , 21 c , 21 d and 21 f , respectively , in the underlying layer . when positioning such layers on top of each other , these edges will fit together and guide the layers to be accurately aligned . although certain preferred embodiments of the invention have been presented in the above description , it should be noted that the invention is not limited thereto . it is understood that variations and modifications according to the spirit of the invention should be included and the invention is solely defined by the scope of the appended claims .