Leonardo da Vinci designed a human-sized robotic knight around 1495 to sit, wave, and move its arms.
The machine was probably created for a court entertainment in Milan, where Leonardo worked for Ludovico Sforza. Its internal system used pulleys, cables, gears, and a control mechanism placed inside an armored human-shaped shell. The surviving drawings suggest that the knight could perform limited humanlike motions.
The design is considered an automaton rather than a modern robot. It had no electronic sensors, computer, or autonomous decision-making system. Its movements would have been mechanically programmed by the arrangement of cams, ropes, and gears.
Leonardo’s original mechanism was not known to have survived. In the late 20th century, researchers studied his drawings and built reconstructions, including a full-scale model displayed in the United States. The project showed that many of the proposed motions were mechanically plausible.