What is the name of Leonardo da Vinci’s humanoid automaton designed around 1495?

Leonardo’s humanoid automaton designed around 1495 is called Leonardo’s robot.

Leonardo designed the machine while working in Milan for Ludovico Sforza. Notes and drawings show an armored figure able to sit, stand, move its arms, and operate its jaw through a system of pulleys and cables. The machine was probably intended for entertainment or court spectacle rather than practical labor.

The robot was not a modern programmable machine. It was a mechanical automaton whose movements were controlled by physical mechanisms. Leonardo’s surviving sketches were incomplete, so modern reconstructions have been used to test how the design may have worked.

The invention is sometimes called Leonardo’s mechanical knight because the mechanism was placed inside armor. That nickname describes its appearance, while “Leonardo’s robot” is the common modern name for the reconstructed device.