What human-shaped machine did Leonardo da Vinci design as an early humanoid robot?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a human-shaped machine known as the mechanical knight.

Leonardo’s drawings from around 1495 show an armored figure containing a system of gears, cables, and pulleys. The mechanism was intended to produce humanlike movements, including sitting, standing, and moving its arms. It was probably created for a Milanese court spectacle connected with the court of Ludovico Sforza.

The machine is often called Leonardo’s robot because it represents an early attempt to build a programmable or semi-autonomous humanoid mechanism. However, the word robot was not used in Leonardo’s time; it came into English centuries later from the Czech word robota.

The mechanical knight is separate from Leonardo’s mechanical lion. The knight was a human-shaped automaton in armor, while the lion was an animal-shaped theatrical machine associated with a later French celebration. Reconstructions have shown that the knight’s basic motions are mechanically plausible.