What courtly automaton did Leonardo da Vinci design in the form of a knight?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a courtly automaton known as the mechanical knight.

The knight was probably created for a Milanese court celebration around 1495. Leonardo's studies of human anatomy and proportion helped him plan a machine with an armored exterior that could perform movements such as sitting, standing, and moving its arms. The mechanism used cables, pulleys, and gears hidden inside the armor.

The original machine has not survived, and the precise details of its operation remain uncertain. In the 2000s, roboticist Mark Rosheim built reconstructions based on Leonardo's drawings and showed that the design could support more movement than earlier scholars had assumed.

The mechanical knight is often called Leonardo's robot, although “robot” is a modern term that did not exist in Renaissance Italy. It was an automaton: a self-moving mechanical figure made for entertainment or spectacle rather than an intelligent machine. The project combines Leonardo's engineering, anatomy, and knowledge of theatrical display.