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An actuator is an energy transducer that can convert a variety of input energies to mechanical quantities such as displacement, strain, velocity and stress. Up to now, many types of materials have been developed as actuator materials. Polymer materials driven by light could play an important role as an efficient energy conversion system because light is an energy source that can be controlled remotely, instantly and precisely. Liquid-crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are superior soft materials that possess both LC orders and elasticity due to polymer networks. A large deformation can be generated in LCEs, such as reversible contraction and expansion, and even bending, by incorporating photochromic molecules, such as an azobenzene, with the aid of photochemical reactions of these chromophores. We summarize the recent progress of polymer materials that can convert light energy into mechanical work directly (photomechanical effect), especially photomobile polymers that show movements in all dimensions controlled by light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]