Inventors at Georgia Tech and Emory have developed an MRI compatible robotic needle positioning system to improve both the speed and accuracy of the injection procedure. The robot uses linear piezoelectric motors to directly drive a parallel plane positioning mechanism. Feedback is provided through MRI images taken during the orientation procedure. This system is found to be capable of orienting a needle endpoint to within 14 microns of a desired position. The robot is also found to be fully MRI compatible. The high accuracy of this needle positioning robot and visual feedback method will result in a significant improvement to the workflow of spinal injection procedures.