What kind of knight did Leonardo da Vinci design as a programmable mechanical figure?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a robotic knight, a mechanical figure intended to perform human-like movements.

Leonardo prepared the design in 1495 for a pageant commissioned by Ludovico Sforza in Milan. The figure wore armor and used an internal system of pulleys, cables, and gears to reproduce actions such as sitting, standing, raising its arms, and moving its visor.

The machine is often called Leonardo’s robot, although “robot” is a modern term. The word did not exist in Leonardo’s lifetime; the historical category is an automaton or mechanical figure. His design shows that Renaissance engineers could create complex motion through carefully arranged mechanisms.

No original robotic knight survives, and the drawing was not fully understood until modern study of Leonardo’s notebooks. In 2002, engineer Mark Rosheim built a reconstruction based on the plans. That reconstruction supported the idea that the design could have worked, though it does not prove the original was completed.