Patent ID: 8308635

Claim:
An endoscope system comprising: an endoscope in which a bending portion configured to be bendable is installed on a distal side of an insertion portion; a bending drive unit which drives and bends the bending portion electrically; a map information storage unit which stores map information digitized by associating an amount of bending, including a bending direction, produced when the bending portion is bent and a three-dimensional position and direction of a distal end of the insertion portion corresponding to the amount of bending with each other, with a position near a rear end of the bending portion being designated as a reference position; a position and direction detecting unit which detects the three-dimensional position and direction of the distal end of the insertion portion; and a bending control unit which controls electrically-driven bending performed by the bending drive unit so as to orient the distal end of the insertion portion into a target direction using the map information, based on the three dimensional position and direction detected by the position and direction detecting unit.