What automated humanoid machine did Leonardo da Vinci design for a Milan court ceremony?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a mechanical knight, an automated humanoid machine for a Milanese court ceremony.

The design dates to about 1495, when Leonardo was working for Ludovico Sforza in Milan. Drawings and notes show an armored figure operated by a system of pulleys, cables, and gears. The mechanism may have allowed the knight to sit, stand, raise its arms, and move its jaw. It was intended as an impressive theatrical automaton rather than as a combat robot.

The machine is often called Leonardo’s robot, although “robot” is a modern label. The word robot was not introduced until the twentieth century, and Leonardo’s device was a mechanical automaton powered by stored or transmitted motion. No original complete machine has survived, so modern reconstructions rely on incomplete evidence from his notebooks.

Engineer Mark Rosheim built a working reconstruction in the early 2000s, demonstrating that the surviving design details could support plausible motion.