Leonardo da Vinci designed the mechanical knight often called his robot in 1495.
Leonardo’s robot was a humanoid automaton designed around 1495, probably for a theatrical spectacle at the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. The machine was dressed in armor and used a system of cables, pulleys, and levers to perform human-like movements, including sitting, standing, and moving its arms.
The original device has not survived, and Leonardo’s notes do not provide a single complete construction manual. Engineers studying his anatomical and mechanical drawings reconstructed the machine in the early 21st century. Those reconstructions showed that the mechanism could plausibly produce the motions Leonardo described.
Calling it a “robot” uses a modern term for a Renaissance automaton. It was not an electronic machine and could not think independently. The word robot was coined much later, in the 20th century. Leonardo’s achievement was the design of a programmable-looking mechanical performer that connected his interests in anatomy, movement, and stage technology.