What human-shaped machine did Leonardo da Vinci design with gears and a suit of armor?

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

The machine was probably created for a court entertainment or festival connected with Ludovico Sforza in Milan around 1495. Leonardo’s notes and drawings indicate that an armored figure could sit, stand, raise its arms, and move its head and jaw through a system of gears, cables, and pulleys.

The design is an early example of a humanoid automaton, meaning a self-moving machine built to imitate human actions. It was not an artificial intelligence system and did not think or act independently; its movements were controlled by mechanical linkages.

The original machine did not survive, and its exact construction was uncertain for centuries. In the modern period, researchers reconstructed versions from Leonardo’s drawings. These reconstructions helped show that the design’s movements were mechanically plausible, although some details remain interpretive.