A surgical instrument (1200) comprises a hand-held portion (1204) configured to be manipulated by a user and a pivoting portion (1202) operatively coupled to the hand-held portion and a drive motor. The pivoting portion is configured to pivot with respect to the hand-held portion according to first and second degrees of freedom. The pivoting portion includes a telescoping nose mechanism (1222) including a nose tube (1212) and an intermediate unit (1228). The intermediate unit includes a plurality of threaded lead screws (1238) and has a carriage (1242) threaded for interfacing with the lead screws to enable rotation of the lead screws, such that the carriage linearly translates along the lead screws to linearly translate the nose tube enabling telescoping of the nose tube relative to the hand-held portion with respect to a third degree of freedom.
