Patent ID: 8480568

Claim:
An endoscope apparatus comprising: an endoscope comprising an insertion portion comprising a distal end portion and a bendable bending portion at a distal end side of the insertion portion, the insertion portion being adapted to be inserted into a body cavity of a subject; a relative position calculation section configured to calculate a relative position with respect to the subject of the distal end portion in the body cavity of the subject; a frontal plane direction detection section configured to detect a direction in which a frontal plane, as a plane which cuts a human body as the subject anteroposteriorly, exists; a reference information storage section that stores in advance reference information that associates: a plurality of characteristics including a first characteristic as to whether or not a respective plurality of tube cavity sites in an organ in a tube cavity shape in the body cavity into which the insertion portion is inserted exist along the frontal plane; and a plurality of search methods for searching for a bending direction of the bending portion, the plurality of search methods including a first search method for searching a bending direction of the bending portion along the frontal plane, and a second search method differing from the first search method; a selection section configured to select a search method corresponding to the relative position from the plurality of search methods, based on the relative position and on the reference information at the relative position; a bending direction determination section configured to determine the bending direction of the bending portion according to the search method selected by the selection section; and a bending drive section configured to bend and drive the bending portion based on the bending direction determined by the bending direction determination section.