An apparatus which comprises a manipulandum that is configured as a surgical instrument; a closed loop linkage system which includes a first central member fixedly coupled to a first object coupling and a second central member fixedly coupled to a second object coupling, wherein the first and second object couplings are separately coupled to the manipulandum to allow the manipulandum to be moveable in a plurality of rotary degrees of freedom and an axial degree of freedom; a force feedback system is coupled to the linkage system, wherein the force feedback system selectively applies resistive forces to the manipulandum based on the position of the manipulandum with respect to one or more reference coordinates. In an embodiment, the force feedback system includes an actuator to provide a force to the manipulandum in at least one degree of freedom in response to signals received from a computer system.