Compact needle manipulator for targeted interventions

An instrument manipulator, comprising:

• a track;
• a translational carriage coupled to ride along the track, the translational carriage being propelled along the track by a linear motor;
• a shoulder yaw joint coupled to the translational carriage, the shoulder yaw joint being actuated by a shoulder yaw motor;
• a shoulder pitch joint coupled to the shoulder yaw joint, the shoulder pitch joint including an arm, a wrist mount coupled to the arm, struts coupled between the wrist mount and the shoulder yaw joint to form a 3D parallelogram, and a shoulder pitch motor coupled to actuate the shoulder pitch joint, the struts, the arm, and the wrist mount;
• a yaw-pitch-roll wrist coupled to the wrist mount, the yaw-pitch-roll wrist including a yaw joint actuated by one or more wrist yaw motors and a differentially driven pitch-roll joint actuated by differentially driven pitch-roll motors;
• and
• an instrument mount coupled to the yaw-pitch-roll wrist, the instrument mount having one or more instrument motors providing an instrument drive.