What armored figure did Leonardo da Vinci design with internal gears and a mechanical jaw?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a mechanical knight operated by an internal system of gears, cables, and pulleys.

Leonardo prepared the design in Milan around 1495, probably for a pageant organized under the patronage of Ludovico Sforza. The armored figure was intended to sit, stand, raise its arms, and move its head and jaw. Its mechanisms were hidden inside a suit of armor, making it resemble a life-sized artificial soldier.

The machine is often called Leonardo’s robot, although “robot” was not a word used in Leonardo’s time. The term was coined in the twentieth century, so mechanical knight is the more historically precise description. No original working machine has survived, and modern reconstructions are based on Leonardo’s drawings and related notes.

The design demonstrates Leonardo’s interest in anatomy, engineering, and theatrical effects. It was not a battlefield automaton or an autonomous artificial intelligence system; it was a mechanically controlled performance device.