What automated figure did Leonardo da Vinci design for a Milan court pageant?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a mechanical knight for a Milan court pageant.

He is believed to have created the design around 1495 for a celebration organized under Ludovico Sforza. The knight wore armor and was operated by an internal system of cables, pulleys, and gears. Reconstructions based on Leonardo’s drawings indicate that it could perform movements such as sitting, standing, and moving its arms.

The figure is often called Leonardo’s robot, although “robot” is a modern description rather than a term Leonardo used. The word robot was introduced much later, in the 20th century. Leonardo’s machine was an automaton: a device carrying out programmed mechanical motions.

The original mechanism did not survive, and the exact performance of the historical figure remains uncertain. Modern reconstructions, including one displayed in Milan in 2002, helped demonstrate how the surviving sketches might have worked.