What kind of cart did Leonardo da Vinci design to move without horses?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a self-propelled cart powered by wound springs rather than horses.

The cart appears in drawings from the Codex Atlanticus and is generally dated to the late fifteenth century. Its spring-driven mechanism was hidden beneath the body, while a steering system helped determine the direction of travel. The design may have been intended for theatrical performances or court spectacles rather than transportation or warfare.

Because the original machine has not survived, scholars have reconstructed it from Leonardo's drawings. In 2006, engineers at the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence built a working replica. The replica demonstrated that the mechanism could move, although its exact historical configuration and performance remain subjects of interpretation.

The cart is sometimes called a robot because it could perform a programmed movement, but it was not an autonomous robot in the modern electronic sense. It was a mechanical vehicle whose stored spring energy produced motion.