What automated machine did Leonardo da Vinci design in the form of a medieval knight?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a mechanical knight.

The automaton was created for a 1495 pageant in Milan, probably under the patronage of Ludovico Sforza. Leonardo’s surviving notes and sketches indicate that the armored figure could sit, stand, move its arms, and operate its jaw through an internal system of pulleys, cables, and gears.

The machine is often called Leonardo’s robot, although that modern word can suggest electronic technology. Leonardo’s design was entirely mechanical and depended on human-set mechanisms rather than sensors, software, or electricity.

Researchers reconstructed the machine in the early twenty-first century from Leonardo’s drawings. The reconstruction helped show that the design was mechanically plausible. It should not be confused with Leonardo’s later proposed mechanical lion, another pageant automaton associated with ceremonial entertainment.