A driving apparatus for smoothly driving a running unit of a robot, including a movable table movably supported by first and second gear mechanisms driven by independent first and second motors engaging with respective two parallel racks to carry a robot body. This apparatus includes a position command unit for delivering a first position command value to the first motor; a constant value generation unit for generating a constant value indicative of a difference between output values from first and second encoders provided in association with the first and second motors when the movable table is positioned perpendicular to the parallel racks; and a correction unit for determining a first deviation between the first position command value and an output value from the first encoder and determining a second deviation between a second command value obtained by adding the constant value to the first position command value and an output value from the second encoder to determine a third deviation between these first and second deviations to correct the first and second deviation signals on the basis of the third deviation to thereby output corrected position command values for the first and second motors, respectively.