| 摘要 |
This bending device is provided with a light source (24), an optical fiber (25) constituted to propagate prescribed detection light shined from the light source (24), a shape sensor (23) having a detected part (26) situated in a portion of the optical fiber (25), and a photodetector unit (27) for detecting the detection light propagated through the optical fiber (26), for utilizing changes in the characteristics of the light detected by the detected part (26) in response to changes in the curvature factor of the optical fiber (25) during bending of the optical fiber (25), the shape sensor (23) being bendable in a free direction and having directionality of detection sensitivity with respect to the bending direction, and a flexible bending structure (12) employed in combination with the shape sensor (23), having bending directionality whereby the structure is endowed with ease of bending such that it is easily bent in at least a specific direction away from the direction of the center axis, and with difficulty of bending such that it is difficult to bend in other directions. |
